County: Limerick Site name: BALLYMACKEAMORE (BGE 3/66/7)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0492
Author: Emer Dennehy, for Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 547212m, N 639679m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.505950, -8.777571
This site was exposed during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping along the route of a Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West.
This shallow curvilinear pit measured 1.28m north-west/south-east by 0.7m and had a maximum depth of 0.08m. The break of slope at the top and bottom was gentle, and all sides were concave. The base was uneven and stony. The pit was filled by a deposit composed of 15% burnt limestone and sandstone in a dark grey, clayey silt matrix with a small amount of charcoal and some unburnt bone.
The presence of burnt stone and charcoal and the absence of water may indicate that it functioned as a pot-boiler or a roasting pit, but, as the pit appeared to be dry, it is more likely to be a roasting pit. It is possible that this feature functioned in relation to the two large fulachta fiadh, BGE 3/66/4 (No. 1104, Excavations 2002, 02E0579, excavated by Graham Hull) and BGE 3/66/12 (No. 1187, Excavations 2002, 02E0559).
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
