2007:839 - MULLAMAST, Kildare

This site was excavated as part of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Phase 3: Kilcullen to Carlow. Testing identified the remains of six pits or post-holes filled with charcoal-rich silty clay in the proposed area of investigation. At least one of these features was truncated by a cultivation furrow. No structure could be discerned from these features and no artefacts were recovered from any of them.

It was originally intended to excavate an area measuring 20m by 20m, but as significant archaeological features were found close to the edge of the stripped area it was decided to extend it so that the final size of the site was c. 50m east–west by 40m. Excavation was carried out between August and September 2007.

The site comprised a coherent group of remains all broadly datable to the Bronze Age, although showing signs of stratigraphic development within that period. They lay near the top of a south-east-facing ridge of a hill, c. 140m above OD.

On the eastern side of the site were the remains of a circular building, truncated by a later agricultural furrow. These comprised seven evenly spaced post-holes, c. 2m apart, in a circle with a diameter of c. 7m, with an eighth post-hole half a metre from another post in the south-east quadrant. Further post-holes may have been removed on the eastern side by the later truncation. Approximately 1m beyond the circle of post-holes, a narrow concentric soil discoloration was interpreted as being evidence of an eaves-drip line from a sloping roof. Three of the post-holes contained pottery provisionally dated to the Bronze Age.

Within the building a central hearth indicated the clay floor level. This lay on a straight line with two stake-holes and an internal pit with a fill rich in charcoal. A further internal pit with cremated bone in it may have been a later feature as the remains of a truncated earlier post-hole lay beneath it. Two storage pits lay close to the building remains to the north.

A second circular feature lay 15m to the west of the building circle. This appeared to have had two or possibly three distinct phases of usage, before being truncated by later agricultural activity. It comprised a penannular ditch with a break in the south-eastern quadrant. On average it was 0.5m wide with a total diameter of 5.5m and with a 1m-wide south-eastern gap. Between 40 and 50 possible stake-holes were recorded as having been driven into the base of the ditch and there may have been a few more removed by the later truncations. At some point in the feature’s use these stakes were pulled out and the ditch was partially backfilled, with token cremations being put into the top fills of the resulting ring-ditch. Within the circle defined by the ditch, further stake-holes and pits, some also containing cremated bone, were recorded beneath a layer of disturbed clay sealing them. The small size of this feature suggests that it may always have served as a funerary monument rather than having been converted from a previous use.

Two storage pits between the major features were also recorded containing substantial amounts of prehistoric pottery.

To the south of the funerary monument a further scattered group of ten cut features included four more cremation pits and several post-holes.

The features appear to represent a Bronze Age cemetery with an associated circular building at its eastern edge. It may originally have extended further to the west beyond the limit of the compulsory purchase order zone of the road scheme. Post-excavation analysis is ongoing but at an early stage.

Unit 1, Wallingstown Business Park, Little Island, Cork, Co Cork