County: Tipperary Site name: RATHCUNIKEEN (Site AR28)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002372
Author: David A. McCullough and Leigh Barker, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 617528m, N 656013m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.655030, -7.740925
An excavation was carried out in September and October 2006 at a site in Rathcunikeen townland, 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 a possible burnt mound. Excavation revealed a shallow denuded burnt mound consisting of a number of thin spreads of burnt stone, ash deposits and charcoal-rich soil over an area of c. 900m2, truncated by a later field boundary that produced recent animal burials and a sixpenny piece dated 1928.
Burnt-mound deposits were shallow and patchy, lying within undulating pockets of the natural boulder clay, giving the appearance of shallow pits. The site is adjacent to a small marshy basin, with a natural spring still rising (local information). The site sealed a number of pits of various sizes. Three of these were large enough (c. 2.2m diameter by 0.8–1m in depth) to be considered as wells and were closely associated with shallow subrectangular features. There was no survival of organic remains, but one of the larger ‘wells’ appeared to have a layer of redeposited clay lining the sides and base.
The remains might have been associated with 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 on.
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
