County: Limerick Site name: BALLINCURRA (BGE 3/76/8–9)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0504
Author: Kate Taylor, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Cremation pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 558537m, N 634774m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.462840, -8.610150
This site was examined as part of Bord Gáis Éireann’s Pipeline to the West. A probable cremation burial, a pit and a shallow scoop were excavated within a 20m stretch of the pipeline easement. The cremation burial-pit was subcircular, 0.34m in diameter, and 0.13m deep, with a bowl-shaped profile. The fill was a mid-brown, humic, silty clay with a moderate amount of charcoal inclusions, occasional crumbs of burnt clay and occasional small fragments of burnt bone. At this stage it is not known whether this bone is human, as no diagnostic pieces were visible during excavation.
The other features lay 10m to the east of the cremation burial. The pit measured 0.47m north–south by 0.43m and was 0.1m deep with an irregular plan and profile. The fill was a mid-brown silty clay with a moderate amount of charcoal inclusions and rare crumbs of burnt clay. The scoop was subcircular, measuring 0.76m north–south by 0.69m, and 0.07m deep, with a very shallow bowl-shaped profile. The fill was a mid-brown silty clay with frequent charcoal inclusions. It is possible that this feature simply represents a spread preserved in a natural depression.
No artefacts were retrieved. Although charcoal was recovered from sieved samples, it was very fragmentary and is unlikely to be suitable for species identification or radiocarbon dating. It is hoped that it will be possible to obtain a radiocarbon date from the cremated bone. Given the nature of the material, particularly the funerary element, the features are likely to be prehistoric in origin, possibly Bronze Age.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
