County: Dublin Site name: WARD UPPER
Sites and Monuments Record No.: DU011-091 Licence number: 03E1358 ext.
Author: Laurence McGowan, for Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 709786m, N 744391m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.438166, -6.347610
This site was excavated from 9 to 26 February 2004 under an extension of the testing licence, at the request of Meath County Council as part of a programme of archaeological mitigation in advance of the proposed N2 Finglas–Ashbourne road scheme in counties Dublin and Meath (Appendix II).
Excavation uncovered a random grouping of features spread over the area, none of which could be shown to be directly related. This included a small burnt pit, an isolated north-south-orientated linear feature and a possible small pit or token cremation.
The most notable feature uncovered was a circular pit measuring c. 1.65m in diameter and reaching a depth of 0.65m. This feature contained a series of fifteen distinct fill episodes, all of which were deposited in relatively quick succession. These fills seemed to represent the deposition of household rubbish, but they produced practically no animal bone or other artefacts normally associated with a domestic site. Instead they produced in excess of 280 pieces of prehistoric pottery, initial examination of which suggests that it dates from the Late Bronze Age and constitutes fragments from between six and ten vessels, including one complete vessel. Samples from this site have been selected for dating and post-excavation analysis.
Unit 4, Dundrum Business Park, Dublin 14
