2006:784 - Cross, Galway

The excavation in Cross was part of the archaeological investigations associated with the proposed N6 Galway to Ballinasloe road scheme. The site was detected during test-trenching and was excavated during January and February 2006. Work was commissioned by Galway County Council and the National Roads Design Office and sponsored by the National Roads Authority.
The site consists of a small ring-ditch cemetery comprising two ring-ditches, seven inhumation burials, eight token cremation burials and some pits and stake-holes. All of the inhumations were orientated west-east. Prior to testing, the site was unknown. The archaeology was located on a minor hilltop with a view of the surrounding countryside. The larger of the ring-ditches (Ring-ditch 1) measured c. 14m in diameter and the smaller (Ring-ditch 2) c. 5m.
Two inhumations, one of which was centrally located, and four token cremation burials were revealed within Ring-ditch 1. A child inhumation was centrally located within Ring-ditch 2. Four cremation pits were discovered east of Ring-ditch 1, one of which stratigraphically pre-dated an inhumation burial. Another inhumation was discovered immediately south of Ring-ditch 1 and two inhumations were discovered within the ditch fills. Based on site stratigraphy, it is evident that one inhumation pre-dated the ditch digging.
Finds from the site include two small coloured beads recovered from the fills of Ring-ditch 2. Some prehistoric pottery sherds and copper alloy beads were found in a cremation pit fill. A chert scraper was discovered in topsoil during initial site cleaning.
Preliminary interpretation suggests that the site represents an ancestral ferta, which was periodically reused from the late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age to the early medieval period. Artefacts and samples from the site are presently awaiting specialist analysis.