County: Roscommon Site name: Ardagawna 1
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A034; E3270
Author: Liam Ó Séaghdha, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd, Brehon House, Kilkenny Road, Castlecomer, Co. Kilkenny.
Site type: Bronze Age ring-ditch/early medieval activity/human burial
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 599127m, N 740257m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.412447, -8.013129
The site of Ardagawna 1 was excavated as part of the N6 Ballinasloe to Athlone national road scheme. Work was commissioned by Galway County Council and funded by the National Roads Authority. The site appears multi-period, with features populating the slopes and brow of a small hill.
A ring-ditch was discovered at the southern limit of the site, half of which was outside the CPO area. The ring-ditch measured 5.33m in diameter (north-east/south-west) and extended into the CPO area by 2.96m. The cut measured 0.42m in depth. The single fill of the ring-ditch contained crushed fragments of cremated human bone and yielded a perforated stone fragment.
Approximately 22m to the north of the ring-ditch was a penannular cut interpreted as the remnants of a small structure measuring 2.8m (north–south) by 2.74m. The foundation cut was 0.32m in depth. This feature contained a single fill and produced a fragment of worked flint. A prehistoric date was proposed. Two unstratified sherds of prehistoric pottery were found at the north-west of the site.
An oriented juvenile inhumation was located at the brow of the hill. The narrow grave-cut measured 1.55m (east–west) by 0.37m and 0.27m in depth. The burial was disturbed to the south and fragments of bone, some possibly heat-affected, were found intermixed with the topsoil in its vicinity. No diagnostic material was found with the burial.
A dumbbell-shaped cereal-drying kiln was located at the south-west limit of the site. This measured 2.2m (north–south) by 1m and 0.36m in depth. Adjacent was an oval pit measuring 1.2m (east–west) by 1m and 0.54m in depth. This contained two fills, which were sampled for traces of cereal remains. To the north was a sub-oval pit which contained three fills, the final containing a piece of slag.
Three circular bowl furnaces were spaced over the eastern slopes of the site. These measured, on average, 1.7m in diameter, with one containing traces of burnt bone. Two possible cremation pits were located on the level plateau of the hill in different areas of the site. They were similar in size, measuring 0.8m by 0.4m and 0.4m in depth. Three smaller burnt spreads were also noted on the eastern slopes of the hill, averaging 0.75m by 0.35m in size. To the north-west of the site, ten stake-holes formed a subcircular pattern. Their dimensions varied from 0.07m to 0.16m by 0.04m to 0.11m and between 0.04m to 0.12m in depth.
Finds and features suggest Bronze Age and early medieval dates for activity on site. Post-excavation work is ongoing and any interpretations are preliminary.
