2006:1932 - Site AR32, Borris, Twomileborris, Tipperary

An excavation was carried out in August and September 2006 in advance of the M8/N8 Cullahill to Cashel road improvement scheme, the Twomileborris to Turnpike link road. Prior assessment and centreline test-trenching was carried out in 2005 (Excavations 2005, No. 1388, A027/023). A flat cremation cemetery containing nine burials, twelve possible ‘blind burials’ and a pit containing a flint core were excavated on a low ridge 500m south-west of Twomileborris village, commanding views of the surrounding countryside.
All pits had been cut into the orange/brown stony subsoil and were similar in morphology. They were circular in plan and 0.22–0.5m in width (most were over 0.37m) and 0.1–0.32m in depth (most were between 0.1m and 0.12m). Profiles varied from concave- to vertical-sided with a flat base. The pits, despite being concentrated in an area measuring 12m north–south by 15m, with one exception did not cut each other. This suggests that the burials were clearly marked aboveground. The presence of a post-hole in the upper fill of one pit reinforces this hypothesis. The fills of the definite cremations were all similar, containing dark-brown/black silt with a charcoal content of 20–50%. Quantities of cremated bone varied from 8% to 40%.
Twelve possible ‘blind burials’ were also excavated. These were similar in all respects to the definite cremations except cremated bone appeared to be absent. These pits may represent the remains of a number of symbolic burials, the practice of token deposition of remains taken to the extreme, perhaps incorporating charcoal from the funerary pyre and deliberately excluding the cremated bone.
The remains of a very truncated pit were located c. 12m to the north of the cremations. At the base of the orange/brown silty clay fill a flint core was retrieved. It is unclear if this pit is related to the cremation cemetery. Later agricultural activity in the form of north–south-running furrows had truncated several of the pits.