2002:1339 - DUNDALK: (Area 9) Marshes Upper, Louth

Excavation at Area 9, Dundalk Institute of Technology, took place between 9 April and 13 May 2002. This site was one of twenty areas of archaeology identified across the development, which involved the construction of six playing fields, with associated access road, car-parking facilities, running track, palisade fencing, drainage and power-line burial. The development was subdivided into two areas of 600m2 (Area 1) and 800m2 (Area 2). Area 1 contained most of the features, representing the remains of an unenclosed Bronze Age settlement and three cremation burials, and Area 2 consisted of a small number of isolated hearth features and small pits containing Early Bronze Age Food Vessel ware. The area had a number of sites of different dates in its immediate surroundings, and a diverse range of dates was taken for the features in Area 9. The Bronze Age settlement can be dated to around 1500 BC, although a medieval and an Iron Age date were also retrieved from a hearth and pit.

The burials were clustered together among the occupational evidence in Area 1 and were of a type common in the Middle to Late Bronze Age. Burial 1 consisted of 1395 individual bone fragments and was placed in a simple pit with an inverted coarseware urn over the remains. It gave a radiocarbon date, from structural carbonate in the cremated human bone, of 3150±35 BP. The base of the urn had been removed, probably by agricultural activity before excavation. It contained the token remains of a child aged around 3–5 years. The outside of the urn had been packed with a charcoal-rich deposit containing moderate amounts of cremated bone, probably the remains of the cremation pyre. Burial 2 was in a simple circular pit and was noticeable for the lack of charcoal in the deposit, suggesting that the remains had been thoroughly separated from the pyre. It consisted of 1256 individual bone fragments representing the remains of a child aged 8–12 years. It provided a date of 3240±35 BP. Burial 3 was also placed in a simple pit and consisted 818 individual bone fragments of an infant aged less than 3 years. It provided a date of 3290±40 BP.

Area 1 contained 22 post-holes, ten stake-holes, nineteen pits, two large spreads of occupational debris and two hearths. Despite the evidence of settlement, no obvious structural pattern was noticeable in the post-hole distribution. As already noted, not all of the features were contemporaneous, but most are thought to date to the later Bronze Age. Over 200 sherds of coarseware pottery were recovered from the area, mostly from a single pit, which contained the broken remains of at least two vessels. A flint end scraper was also found in this pit. A number of whetstones, a hammerstone, a flint side scraper, flint debitage and a grinding stone were also found in the area. Area 2 contained a small number of isolated patches of oxidised clay, which have been interpreted as hearths, and a cluster of stake-holes and pits, one of which contained a number of fragments of Early Bronze Age bowl vessels. The pottery appeared to be quite denuded and may have been redeposited. No 14C date was attainable for this feature.

Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth