2007:902 - AR083, Danesfort, Kilkenny

This site was located within the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road scheme along Contract 2, Phase 4, Knocktopher to Powerstown in rolling agricultural lands on an undulating plain with a slight slope uphill to the south. The site terrain dipped towards a natural boggy hollow where a burnt mound was noted in an adjacent field that had been recently ploughed to the north-west of the site. The subsoil on the southern part of the site was sandy clay glacial till but changed dramatically at this point to almost pure sand. A geophysical survey was undertaken in advance of excavation due to the proximity of the road-take to KK019–060, a ridge and furrow, located in a field further north-east of the site. Some furrows, a curving anomaly and a scatter of several pits were noted. An area 160m by 60m was stripped of topsoil and the curving anomaly identified during the geophysical survey was found to be non-archaeological in nature during excavation.
At the southern end of the site a deep, flat-bottomed, straight-sided circular pit (0.97m by 0.73m by 0.53m deep) was identified at the very western edge of the road-take. It contained several large sherds of three or four different Late Bronze Age vase urn vessels dumped in to the pit on separate occasions (E. Grogan, pers. comm.). It is therefore interpreted as a clearance pit: when older cremations were disturbed by newer depositions of remains in a cemetery the pit was used much like a charnel pit is used in an inhumation cemetery. Some fragments of burnt bone were also contained within the deposits; further analysis of it will be necessary to ascertain if the bone recovered is human. It is possible a cemetery is located further west beyond the road-take and that the road corridor simply clipped the edge of it. It may also be related to the pits and settlement activity at other nearby Danesfort sites.
A second possible cremation pit was identified 50m north-west of the other pit. It contained a black, charcoal-rich deposit with burnt bone; further analysis of it will be necessary to ascertain if the bone recovered is human. This small circular pit had subsequently been cut by another slightly larger oval pit which may represent the position of a marker post or standing stone.
A concentration of features including post-pits, stake-holes, pits and boundaries were identified on the western edge of a natural pond that measured 5.6m by 3.2m by 0.85m deep at the northernmost part of the site. A number of sherds of 13th–14th-century pottery were recovered from the natural pond or waterhole along with several pieces of bronze waste; all the pottery sherds from this feature were badly abraded and had probably been washed in over time as the hollow silted up. It is difficult at present to discern a pattern within the scatter of post-pits, stake-holes and pits; a rectangular structure is possible but further post-excavation analysis is required. Almost all of these features contained sherds of 13th–14th-century medieval glazed pottery. From a cursory analysis, Irish/Kilkenny local wares, Leinster cooking ware and English and French imports are all represented within the assemblage; however, further analysis is necessary to create a more comprehensive picture. The head of a copper-alloy stick-pin and an iron spur were also recovered from the pits associated with these post-holes, all suggestive of domestic occupation. Small slot-trenches or boundaries extended out from this potential structure and may represent garden boundaries or animal holding pens. Twenty metres east of the natural hollow and associated activity a field boundary 37m by 1.6m by 0.7m was located running south-east/north-west across the site; it was V-shaped in profile and also contained 13th–14th-century pottery sherds. It truncated a large rubbish pit, 3.8m by 3.4m by 0.8m, which pre-dated it.