2004:1008 - KILBANE, Limerick

An enclosure identified on this site by Avril Hayes in 2002 (Excavations 2002, No. 1186, 02E1782) was tested by the author under licence 04E1086 (No. 1007, Excavations 2004) and excavation followed under this licence.

Finds, including pottery and worked stone, suggest a Bronze Age date for the site, with evidence also of Early Christian activity in the form of a corn-drying kiln. Post-excavation work was ongoing at the time of writing.

The enclosure proved to be subtriangular in plan and was defined by a discontinuous double ditch or trench. This was 0.2–0.8m deep and 0.5–2m wide and at this stage is best described as a trench rather than a ditch. At the northern end of the site the outer ditch had been recut to form a wider deeper feature, c. 2.5m wide and c.1m deep.

Towards the centre of the enclosure there was a concentration of post- and stake-holes, suggesting the presence of a roughly D-shaped structure that measured 6–7m in diameter. The absence of a central hearth suggests this structure was not domestic in nature.

To the south of the D-shaped structure two funerary pyres were revealed, of which the southern one had been truncated by a portion of the inner eastern ditch or trench defining the enclosure. This was oval in plan, measuring 1.7m north-south by 0.7m by 0.15m deep, and the oxidised deposits revealed suggest intense burning. The northern pyre was oval in plan, measuring 1.7m north-west/southeast by 0.76m by 0.22m deep. A flue at the southeastern end, 0.7m long, appears to have accommodated the passage of air into the pyre. The oxidised deposits revealed in the pyre and flue suggest intense burning. There were numerous postholes, stake-holes and pits in the southern portion of the enclosure. Five of these pits, which were quite shallow, contained cremated bone.

A small corn-drying kiln was revealed in the northern end of the enclosure. It was slightly key-shaped in plan and measured 2.06m north-south by 0.75m by 0.48m deep.

AE House, Monahan Road, Cork