County: Tipperary Site name: Site AR27, Lahardan Upper and Rathcunikeen
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002371
Author: David A. McCullough and Leigh Barker, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Pits/denuded burnt mound
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 617405m, N 655897m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.653992, -7.742749
An excavation was carried out in October 2006 at a site in Lahardan Upper and Rathcunikeen townlands, near Littleton, in advance of the proposed M8/N8 Cullahill to Cashel road improvement scheme. Prior assessment and centreline testing of the proposed route in 2005 (Excavations 2005, No. 1388, A027/011) revealed three pits and a linear feature containing burnt stone and charcoal-rich clay.
Excavation revealed an isolated cluster of four shallow deposits within an area of c. 100m2. These small pit features lay on the western edge of a small natural spring-fed marshy basin. Each feature contained a fill of ashy charcoal-rich material with small burnt fire-cracked sandstones. No burning appeared to have taken place in situ and the material may have been a secondary deposition after processes that took place in the immediate vicinity. The site was interpreted as the ploughed-out remains of so-called ‘pyrolithic technology’, whereby stones were heated by fire and used in conjunction with pits filled with water. The exact function of this technology, however, can only be speculated.
Two parallel shallow ditches representing a modern field boundary were also excavated.
