2002:0627 - LUSK, Dublin

NMI Burial Excavation Records

County: Dublin Site name: LUSK

Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1031

Author: Susan McCabe, Arch-Tech Ltd.

Site type: Hearth and Cremation pit

Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)

ITM: E 721606m, N 754494m

Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.526326, -6.165884

During monitoring of Phase 3 of a residential development south of the medieval town of Lusk, Co. Dublin (SMR 8:10), two small, subcircular pits were identified. The features were at the entrance to the site, adjacent to the Dublin Road. Separated by a distance of 42m, the features are not thought to be associated with each other.

Feature 1, a circular hearth cut into the natural subsoil, measured 0.7m in diameter and was 0.13m deep. Burnt orange subsoil occurred along the western side and the southern part of the base, suggesting oxidisation as a result of in situ burning. The sides of the feature were steeply sloped, with a rounded break of slope leading to a flattened base. A single, black, charcoal-enriched, silty clay fill was present in the feature.

Feature 2, measuring 1.05m north–south by 0.75m by 0.06m deep, was sub-oval and cut into the natural subsoil. The sides of this cut were gently sloped to an irregular, undulating base. The feature contained an upper fill of dark grey, silty clay, with abundant charcoal flecks and rare, medium-sized stone inclusions, and a underlying shallow, black, charcoal layer comprising crushed and lumped charcoal with very rare burnt bone inclusions.

Further analysis of the bone and/or charcoal found in the feature may confirm its function as an isolated, truncated cremation pit.

32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2