County: Kilkenny Site name: Dunkitt/Miltown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: - Licence number: A0032, E2498
Author: Joanna Wren, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Prehistoric
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 658515m, N 617545m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.306438, -7.141938
The site was uncovered during archaeological work for the NRA in advance of the N9/N10 Waterford to Powerstown scheme. In May 2006, two areas of excavation were opened in the vicinity of features uncovered in testing (A0032/01–08).
In Area 1 a cutting of 812m2 was stripped of topsoil about a circular pit uncovered in testing. Excavation of the wider area showed this pit to be one of a pair on a north–south line. A circular spread of similar grey sandy silt with very sparse charcoal inclusions filled a hollow 0.1m to the south. Both pits seemed to have sterile fills and were not found in association with any other diagnostic features.
In Area 2 a rectangular cutting of 1254m2 was stripped of topsoil about a spread of fire-cracked stone uncovered in testing. On excavation this spread had a maximum extent of 6.3m north–south by 5m. It extended west beyond the limits of excavation. The stone spread was 0.11m thick and lay above a deposit of charcoal 0.04m deep. No trough was uncovered in association with this spread and, at the edge of a quarry, it was in an unusual location for a fulacht fiadh. Its function remains to be determined. Four pieces of worked flint and a possible hammerstone were recovered from the upper levels of the stone spread.
A pit with in situ burning was uncovered 9m south-east of the burnt spread. This was roughly subrectangular with one larger rounded end. It measured 2.6m north-west/south-east by 1.8m wide. The burning and an intense deposit of charcoal were confined to the rounded end, which seems to be the chamber of some type of kiln, with the narrower rectangular end acting as the flue. It resembles an early medieval drying kiln excavated by Matthew Seaver at Laughinstown, Co. Dublin (Seaver 2004, 10).
Samples taken from the burnt-stone spread and the chamber of the kiln are being processed for environmental analysis and radiocarbon dating and work is under way towards the production of both preliminary and detailed final reports on this site.
Reference
Seaver, M. 2004 From mountain to sea – excavations at Laughanstown/Glebe. Archaeology Ireland, 8–12.
