County: Cork Site name: Barnagore 4
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0400
Author: Ed Danaher, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Cremation pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 555989m, N 569816m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.878783, -8.639224
During monitoring of topsoil-stripping in the townland of Barnagore, carried out as part of the N22 Ballincollig Bypass Scheme, a Bronze Age cremation pit was uncovered c. 0.5m below the sod. An area measuring 10m east–west by 10m was cleaned back. Apart from this pit, a small, shallow deposit was revealed 2m to the west of it. The site lies 100m north of a possible Bronze Age pit (No. 234, Excavations 2002, 02E0383) and c. 80m north-west of a cluster of three Bronze Age pits and a Neolithic house (No. 235, Excavations 2002, 02E0384).
The site consisted of the basal remains of a pit cut into the brown/orange boulder clay and an oval deposit of loose, dark brown, sandy clay to the west. The deposit sat directly on the boulder clay; no cut was present. It contained occasional amounts of gravel throughout and was 0.32m long, 0.21m wide and 0.04m deep.
The pit was subcircular, 0.44m long and 0.41m wide, and was 0.07m deep. It lay less than 10m north-east of a small quarry, and it is quite possible that it was truncated during works associated with this quarry. However, it was also damaged during topsoil-stripping, when the upper part was removed. The pit contained two fills.
The primary fill was a moderately compact, mid-/ dark brown, sandy clay containing frequent inclusions of small, angular stone and occasional charcoal. Sealing this was a mottled, mid-brown, sandy clay, containing flecks of redeposited natural throughout. The upper level of this deposit was truncated during topsoil-stripping. It contained 22 sherds of Bronze Age pottery, all of which appear to be from the bowl tradition of the Early Bronze Age (the pottery is awaiting analysis). The pottery was distributed around the deposit, with concentrations along the west and to the surface; a number of sherds had been disturbed during the topsoil-stripping. An extremely small quantity of poorly preserved cremated bone, with individual fragments no greater than 5mm in diameter, was also present in this deposit, to the north, near the surface.
The pottery represented three or four different vessels that appeared to have been placed into the pit as sherds. The early date was substantiated by the radiocarbon analysis from the charcoal derived from this pit, which gave a date range of 2300–2040 BC. Oak was the only wood species identified in the pit, and, as this species can reach an age of 300–400 years, the ‘old wood effect’ needs to be taken into consideration. The fact that oak was the only timber present may suggest that it was specifically selected for use in the cremation pit.
Excavations in the townlands of Barnagore and Greenfield suggest that this site formed part of a wide-ranging Bronze Age presence in the area.
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