County: Wicklow Site name: GSAR SITE 4, PRIESTSNEWTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 04E0403
Author: Ken Wiggins, Judith Carroll & Co. Ltd, 13 Anglesea Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2.
Site type: Prehistoric pits and post-holes
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 728231m, N 709101m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.117035, -6.084387
Site 4 was located in Field 10 of the GSAR, Chainage 1250-1295, and consisted of a concentrated group of twelve post-holes and six pits in the surface of the subsoil. The site measured 10.5m (east-west) by 8m.
The largest feature, pit C1, at the south-east corner of the site, was subrectangular in plan and contained burnt-stone material with moderate inclusions of burnt bone and occasional charcoal pieces. Two other pits, C14 and C15, west of pit C1, also contained burnt-stone fragments in the fill deposits as well as inclusions of cremated bone. Pit C12, at the southwest corner of the site, contained inclusions of cremated bone but no burnt-stone fragments.
The post-holes were arranged into two formations. Four post-holes comprised a northwest/south-east alignment with a total length of c. 3.5m at the north-west corner of the site. There were some burnt-bone inclusions in the fill of post-hole C2. Six other post-holes formed a separate curvilinear north-west/south-east alignment, with a total length of c. 6.8m at the north-east corner of the site. This formation comprised two individual post-holes, C6 and C13, and two sets of paired post-holes, C9/C10 and C7/C8. Cremated bone inclusions were found in each of these post-holes, with the exception of C6 and C7. Another post-hole pair, C5 and C37, occupying a more central location on the site, did not appear to belong to either of the two alignments. The fills of both features contained burnt-bone inclusions.
The presence of burnt-stone material in three pits at the southern end of the site suggests that the Site 4 remains could be peripheral to a levelled fulacht fiadh. However, the absence of a characteristic spread of burnt stones across at least part of the site makes interpretation as a fulacht fiadh difficult. Furthermore, the same pits each contained traces of cremated bone, more of which came from seven of the post-holes, material not typically associated with excavated fulachta fiadh. The post-holes indicate that substantial structures existed on the site, but the surviving evidence is too limited and incomplete to provide meaningful plans of these structures. It is possible that the site was connected with the cremation of human remains, while not itself a burial site. Cremation burials in upright coarseware pots were discovered along the line of the GSAR on Site 6b, located c. 400m south-west of Site 4 (see No. 1883 below, Priestsnewtown, 03E0401).
