County: Limerick Site name: COMMONS (BGE 3/64/3)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0660
Author: Tony Bartlett and Kate Taylor, Margaret Gowen & Co. Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound and Pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 545053m, N 640885m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.516570, -8.809566
This site was examined as part of Bord Gáis Éireann’s Pipeline to the West. It lay on flat pastureland. A low mound of burnt material was identified during monitoring. Unauthorised construction machining levelled the mound, leaving what appeared to be a spread. When excavated, the remaining burnt material was shown to be the fill of a large pit.
Further cleaning of the surrounding area revealed three features: a linear gully, a shallow pit and a post-medieval drain. The excavated area measured 21.75m (north-west/south-east) by 19.75m.
The larger pit was irregularly sub-oval, with a concave profile and a flattish base. The sides sloped gently in the south, south-east and south-west and were steeper in the north, north-east and north-west. Maximum dimensions were 6.45m (north–south) by 5.95m, and the feature was 1.35m deep. When excavated, the pit filled with water to a depth of c. 0.35m, indicating the height of the present water table.
A single, moderately compacted deposit was recorded in the large pit, which seemed to represent a single phase of backfilling of the feature. This deposit was a charcoal-rich, dark grey/black, sandy, silty clay, with occasional inclusions of peat and c. 50% heat-shattered stones. Preserved seeds and hazelnuts were recovered from the base of the pit, as well as a large sample of small twigs (possibly hazel), preservation of which had presumably been aided by the presence of the water table.
A shallow linear gully (5.95m long and 0.2m deep) ran from the large pit in the north-west to the field drain in the south-east. Although the gully was cut by the drain, the stratigraphic relationship with the pit could not be ascertained. The gully was also filled by redeposited mound material.
A curvilinear field drain spanned the site. Two deposits were noted in it: the lower deposit was a layer of limestone pieces (typical of a drain), and the upper deposit contained charcoal-enriched soil and heat-shattered stones. Because of the deposition of burnt material, it is thought that material from the low mound that had overlain the large pit had been used to assist drainage.
The shallow pit was an isolated feature lying 10m south-east of large pit, with an hourglass shape. It measured 1.3m by 0.95m and was 0.2m deep. A single fill, a sterile, grey, silty clay, was recorded. The isolation of the pit, the lack of any datable material and the probable truncation of its depth by machine activity render it difficult to come to any conclusion about its date or function.
Despite the large amount of burnt stone and charcoal, no hearth or typical burnt-mound trough was found. The main focus of the site was the large pit, the function of which is unclear. In the absence of absolute dating evidence, it is considered likely that the pit construction dates to the Bronze Age. Also of interest was the gully, which may well have been contemporary with the large pit. The gully may have served as an overflow from the large pit or, alternatively, as a channel to direct water into the pit.
2 Killiney View, Albert Road Lower, Glenageary, Co. Dublin
