County: Kilkenny Site name: BAYSRATH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: AR053/54, A032:28: 53/4; E2517
Author: John Channing, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Settlement cluster, Industrial site and Burial ground
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 651535m, N 637676m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.488063, -7.241190
Initially assigned two site numbers, both AR053 and AR054 comprise one archaeological site and are recorded as such. The excavation was undertaken as part of the archaeological programme for the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford scheme, Waterford to Knocktopher section, from October 2006 to August 2007. Excavations revealed archaeologically significant deposits ranging in date from the Late Neolithic to the early modern period.
Domestic life was represented by over a dozen round houses and two enclosures. A series of pits with Beaker, lithics and a fossil were present to the south of the site. To the north, three unenclosed and undated round house groups were evidenced by circular slot-trenches/gullies. The southernmost group was truncated by the first enclosure, which consisted of a circular palisade foundation trench with an internal diameter of 41.5m. Four circular structures, with distinct post-rings, together with two possible rectangular structures and associated pits, were present within the palisade.
The palisade was truncated to the north by a substantial circular ditch (internal diameter 31.5m, max. width 3.5m and depth 1.5m). The ditch was broken by an entrance causeway to the east. A series of boundary ditches provide circumstantial evidence for continuity from palisade to ditch enclosure. Similar continuity into the current boundary system can also be suggested but not proved.
Industry was evidenced by three clusters of slag pit furnaces, nineteen kilns (including recuts) and numerous concentrations of pit activity. The kilns represented keyhole, T-shape, figure-of-eight and dumbbell types. Initial cereal analysis is suggestive of a prehistoric date, while the T-shaped kiln may be reminiscent of Romano-British examples.
The dead were represented by over 67 ‘inhumation events’, nine discrete cremation deposits together with less well-defined scatters of cremated bone within a double ring-ditch complex. Preservation of bone was poor and some grave-cuts within the inhumation cemetery did not preserve any bone, hence the term ‘inhumation event’. Five different burial rites were identified, including discrete cremation deposits, ring-ditch, charnel pit, linear west–east-aligned inhumations and isolated single inhumations.
The majority of the inhumations were arranged in a linear pattern, side-by-side, directly north-east of the ring-ditch complex. The main ring-ditch featured two narrow causeways, c. 0.2m wide, separating the ditch cut into a C-shape on plan with a closing arc between the terminals. The causeways appeared too narrow for access and variations in the cremated bone concentrations were noted between the fills of the two ditch cuts. The discrete cremations lay in a tight cluster to the south-west of the site. The palisade enclosure ran through the cremation area. Fragments of a carinated bowl were present at the base of one of the cremations.
While the site preserved a wide variety of feature types, these were often spatially distant with little stratigraphic relationship between clusters of features. Specialist analysis is ongoing and it is hoped that this will test preliminary site interpretations.
J
Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny
