County: Cork Site name: GREENFIELD 5
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0946
Author: Ed Danaher, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Cremation pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 557589m, N 569657m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 51.877483, -8.615965
Excavation of features exposed during the monitoring programme for the N22 Ballincollig Bypass Scheme revealed a small deposit of charcoal-enriched soil and fragments of cremated bone c. 0.5m below the sod in the townland of Greenfield. An area measuring 10m east–west by 10m was cleaned back. Apart from this isolated feature, no others were present. It was situated c. 800m east of a possible Bronze Age house excavated by Donald Murphy at Greenfield 2 (Excavations 2001, No. 179, 01E0731).
The site consisted of a pit cut into the brown/orange boulder clay with two stake-holes cut into its base. It was subcircular, measuring 0.4m north–south by 0.3m, and had a maximum depth of 0.09m. The pit had a sharp break of slope at the top, except along the eastern side, which was gradual. It had gently sloping sides, giving it a concave profile, and a gradual break of slope at the base, with the sides tapering to an uneven base. The pit, particularly the south-eastern quadrant, had been damaged during topsoil-stripping.
Two possible stake-holes were present within the north-eastern quadrant; the larger one was subcircular, 0.11m long and 0.09m wide, and was 0.1m deep. It had a sharp break of slope at the top, with vertical sides and a pointed base. The second stake-hole, which was oval, was situated less than 0.1m to the north-east and had a sharp break of slope at the top, vertical sides and a pointed base. It was 0.08m long, 0.06m wide and 0.06m deep.
The fill of the pit was a moderately compact, black, charcoal-stained, sandy clay containing frequent (c. 30%) fragments of crushed cremated human bone, charcoal flecks and occasional pebble inclusions. The upper level of this deposit had been truncated during topsoil-stripping. The fills of both stake-holes were very similar to each other: a loose, mid-/dark brown, silty clay containing inclusions of cremated bone and charcoal flecks. These differed from the fill of the cremation pit only in compaction, the latter deposit being more compact.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
