2003:0278 - GRANGE, Kilumney, Cork

Two hundred and seventy-three houses are being constructed in a 7ha greenfield site located on the south bank of the Bride River, a tributary of the Lee, c. 500m to the east of Kilumney village. The site had already been tested by Avril Purcell (Excavations 2001, No. 177). No material of significance was recorded during testing nor did a desktop survey indicate the presence of unrecorded archaeology at the site. The testing licence was extended for monitoring purposes. Nineteen areas/patches of burnt material were recorded when a layer of c. 0.3–0.4m of topsoil was removed from the site; natural light-brown gravelly subsoil was present directly beneath this level.

A new licence (03E0123) was granted for excavation of what turned out to be a total of twenty pits cut into the natural subsoil, as well as one spread containing metal slag, one spread of burnt material, two areas of tree-root burning and a spread of non-archaeological soil. All features had been truncated by years of ploughing and also to a lesser extent by the recent topsoil removal. The pits were generally circular in shape, varying in diameter from 0.3 to 1.3m, and in depth from 0.07 to 0.56m, although there were two oval examples. One of the excavated pits was shallow (0.33m depth) and elongated (1.3m by 3.5m); it was stone-lined in places and had the appearance of a fulacht fiadh trough, but there was no evidence for an associated mound. A roughly circular (1.5m north–south by 1.2m), straight-sided pit, filled to a depth of 0.5m with dark-brown gravelly soil containing heat-shattered stone and small amounts of charcoal, may have been a roasting pit. At the base of the pit was a thick layer of dark-brown silt containing cattle molars. A nearby shallow subcircular pit (0.87m by 1.08m) was possibly associated with the roasting pit. The dark-brown/black soil in the pit contained c. 30% charcoal, as well as white limestone.

Part of the disarticulated skeleton of a single adult male, probably over 45 years old at the time of death, was found in a roughly oval pit 2.55m long north-north-east/south-south-west, by a maximum of 1.7m and 0.6m deep. The bone was in two deposits c. 0.3m apart within the fill of the pit. The pit was filled with a single deposit of dark-brown soil containing 20–40% charcoal and some white limestone. There were lenses of charcoal and burnt clay in the north-east part of the pit. The human remains appeared to have been deposited in the pit at the same time as the fill. Many of the breaks on the bone fragments appear relatively fresh, but not so fresh as to be attributable to accidental breakage during the most recent excavation of the remains. It seems possible that the bones were disturbed from the original place of interment relatively recently and redeposited in this pit. All of the bones are from the upper parts of the body, including the torso, arms and skull. The deposit of bone was probably truncated from a formal burial somewhere in the surrounding vicinity. The antiquity of the remains is debatable. The analysis of the dentition suggests that this individual may have lived in the medieval period, if not earlier.

All but one of the pits contained a single fill, which generally consisted of dark-brown (burnt) gravelly clay (natural subsoil), containing varying amounts of charcoal, burnt clay and/or heat-shattered stone. Scorched soil was present at the base of a number of pits, indicating in situ burning. The pits were located over a large area and, without dating evidence, the relationship (if any) between these features is not known. A number of soil samples have been selected for analysis and it is hoped to date any suitable charcoal from these. No artefacts were found at the site.

AE House, Monahan Road, Cork