County: Dublin Site name: GRANGE: Baldoyle (Site 6:4)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0704
Author: Stuart D. Elder, The Archaeology Company
Site type: Ring-ditch
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 724541m, N 740358m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.398671, -6.127252
Site 6:4 was found during topsoil-stripping for a new town development close to a bank of spoil along the southern side of the North Fringe Sewer, which forms the northern arm of the primary route through the development. The extent of the site was only known once this spoil bank had been removed.
The site comprised a single curvilinear ditch feature containing two fills and a recut containing three charcoal-rich fills. The ditch feature was aligned roughly north-south for the main part, curving slightly towards the south-west at its southern extreme, and was c. 12m in overall length, 0.73m in width and 0.6m in depth. It was truncated at its southern extent by a later east-west-orientated linear feature. Deposits of charcoal-rich material were noted variously throughout the fills and these yielded burnt-bone fragments and occasional crude pottery sherds and fragments. An almost-complete globular amber bead and a fragmentary conical amber bead were also recovered from the fills. The presence of a large quantity of unburnt animal bone, taken into consideration with the charcoal, burnt bone, pottery and jewellery, suggests that this site represents a burial monument, with evidence of associated ritual feasting activity. The site may be contemporary with other sites in Fields 5 and 6 and may as a whole, therefore, represent a complex of activity related to the early prehistoric period.
Birr Technology Centre, Mill Island, Birr, Co. Offaly
