County: Kildare Site name: BURTOWN LITTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002989
Author: Catríona Gleeson, Headland Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Barrow - unlcassified
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 675626m, N 694743m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.998065, -6.873383
Excavations were carried out as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Phase 3: Kilcullen to Carlow. Post-excavation analysis and reporting is ongoing.
A penannular ring-ditch and a possible corn-drying kiln were identified during the course of testing by CRDS Ltd. Full resolution was carried out in 2007.
During the course of the excavation, two ring-ditches/barrows, up to ten associated cremations and three linear ditches were unearthed. The ring-ditches were separated by a distance of 3.5m, with the larger of the two (10m external diameter) being located to the north of a smaller (6m external diameter) example. The former (Ditch A) comprised a shallow (0.1–0.45m) penannular ditch, which circumscribed an internal area measuring 8m in diameter and a south-eastern entrance. No internal cremations were evident; however, two associated cremations, which truncated the surface of the ditch, were recorded at its north-western and south-eastern sides. Four fills were deposited within this ditch; occasional inclusions of bone and a fragment of iron slag were included within these fills.
Ditch B represented the smaller of the two ring-ditches; it enclosed an internal area measuring 3.5–4.3m and also contained a north-eastern entrance. One large (0.92m by 0.75m by 0.39m) and two smaller (0.35m average diameter) cremation pits were located within the interior of this barrow. One fill was deposited within this ditch; it contained one sherd of prehistoric pottery and appeared to have resulted from an episode of backfilling.
Up to five additional external cremation pits were uncovered on the site. One of these pits was positioned between the two ring-barrows, up to 5m north of Ditch A. Twenty-five ceramic beads were retrieved from this pit, and these represent a rare type of artefact with no known parallels to date.
Three linear/curvilinear ditches and a corn-drying kiln were also uncovered during the excavation; these are all suspected to be medieval in date and may represent a continuation of activity from a site excavated c. 100m to its south-west (E2990; see No. 787, Excavations 2007) where a series of medieval ditches were excavated.
Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork
