County: Kildare Site name: BURTOWN LITTLE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002990
Author: Lydia Cagney, Headland Archaeology Ltd.
Site type: Field system
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 675621m, N 694636m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.997104, -6.873482
This site was excavated as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Phase 3: Kilcullen to Carlow. Four small ditches and a pit were identified during testing in 2006 by CRDS Ltd. Archaeological activity in the form of two ring-barrows and a corn-drying kiln were also excavated during the excavation phase of the project in Burtown Little (E2989, No. 786, Excavations 2007); these were adjacent sites and were located immediately south-west of the study area. The site was located in a large, gently undulating subrectangular field and was situated 100m east of a church and graveyard (KD035–030).
An area comprising 692m2 was stripped of its topsoil. This revealed a network of shallow linear and curvilinear ditches, which appeared to represent at least two phases of field ditches and drains dating to the medieval and post-medieval periods, as evidenced by the ceramic and metal artefacts retrieved from the site. The orientation and stratigraphic relationships associated with these ditches suggests that an episode of post-medieval activity was superimposed upon an earlier (medieval) phase. An element of spatial organisation was also observed with the former, with similar distances between the ditches, suggesting a tentative interpretation of a medieval field system. The proximity of the above-mentioned medieval/early medieval church to the site may also lend support to this interpretation.
Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork
