County: Tipperary Site name: Annaholty
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E002326
Author: Liam McKinstry, Headland Archaeology Ltd, Unit 25, Liosbaun Industrial Estate, Galway.
Site type: Burnt-stone pits and spreads
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 569099m, N 664557m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.731218, -8.457511
Archaeological investigations in advance of the N7 Nenagh to Limerick high-quality dual carriageway road project took place at Annaholty between 9 and 20 February 2007. Excavations revealed two separate areas of archaeological features c. 30m apart (see also No. 1566, E2327, below).
This concentration of features consisted of three small burnt-stone and charcoal spreads and three pits (C5, C17 and C28). C17 was a medium-sized subcircular pit which contained burnt stone and charcoal. Its southernmost fill was cut by a medium-sized pit which contained a large amount of charcoal and stone. C17 may have represented a rudimentary kiln and C5 the evidence of reuse within it. Post-excavation sampling may reveal grain evidence to support the kiln hypothesis.
Pit C28 was large, irregular and keyhole-shaped and contained a number of fills, some of which contained charcoal. This may have been a cooking pit and had three spreads of waste associated with it. The features were subsequently cut by a series of modern drainage ditches. There were no finds from the excavation.
