2010:395 - Ballymore Eustace, Kildare

A series of test-trenches were excavated to the north-east of the barrow KE029–051 on foot of a geophysical survey (08R0031) which identified a large area of archaeological potential. The test excavations confirmed that the potential features identified by the geophysical survey were archaeological in nature and several additional features (a post-hole, pits and ditches) that had not been identified by the survey were also uncovered in the test-trenches. The combined results of the geophysical survey and test excavations have identified a previously unrecorded area of archaeological significance that is likely to be part of a large multi-period site with ditches, pits and a post-hole indicating an area of settlement activity extending over an area measuring 26m by 15m.
Seven trenches were excavated on-site, revealing that topsoil varied from 0.2m to 0.4m deep. All of the archaeological features were cut into subsoil.
The post-hole uncovered on the western end of the site measured 0.12m in diameter and was probably part of a larger structure that extends outside the test-trench. A struck flint recovered from this post-hole suggests that it dates to the prehistoric period. Two pits in proximity to the post-hole probably indicate contemporary settlement activity. These pits measured 0.7m by 0.5m and 0.35m by 0.23m and were 0.08–0.12m deep.
Three linear ditches, F17, F19 and F21/F23, identified to the east and south-east of the pits and post-hole may be part of a contemporary settlement site, although no finds were recovered to indicate their date. These ditches measured 0.8m wide by 0.2m deep, 0.66m by 0.4m and 1.3m by 0.4m respectively. They all had similar fills of mid-brown silty clay with charcoal flecks, and fragments of bone (burnt and unburnt) were present within the fill of F21/23. A curvilinear ditch F25, located to the west of the ditch F21/F23 and c. 20m north-east of the recorded barrow (029–051) may date to the Bronze Age, since it contained a fragment of a copper-alloy ring. This ditch was 0.5m wide and 0.4m deep and was filled with dark-brown silty clay which contained poorly preserved fragments of animal bone.
A larger (3.5m by 1.2m) ditch, F3, uncovered in Trench 6 on the eastern end of the site, c. 43m from the barrow, may be part of a ditched enclosure. However, this east–west-orientated ditch was not uncovered within the Trench 5, which was located some 23m to the west, suggesting that it terminated somewhere between the two parallel trenches. A smaller (1.6m by 0.5m) north-east/south-west-orientated linear ditch, F27, in Trench 5, may also be part of an enclosure or a linear field boundary. Another ditch, F5, measuring just 0.65m by 0.23m, was located to the south of the large ditch F3. These three ditches (F3, F27 and F15) were located within an area depicted on the historic maps as open fields and they almost certainly pre-date these maps, while their relative proximity to the barrow (029–081) could suggest a prehistoric date.
The spoil from the hand-dug sections together with that from the mechanically excavated trenches was scanned by a metal detector. No ‘hits’ were recorded during this metal-detection exercise. The absence of topsoil finds from any of the test-trenches suggests that the land may not have been tilled or otherwise disturbed during the medieval or post-medieval periods.
The features identified as a result of geophysical survey and test excavations suggest an area of settlement, where at least some of the activity dates from the prehistoric period. Occasional fragments of burnt bone were identified during testing, but these were not found in the type of concentrated deposits that typically indicate cremation burials. Several poorly preserved fragments of unburnt bone were also uncovered. These were all disarticulated and those that allowed for identification in the field were from domestic animals. Thus the evidence suggests that the bones uncovered here were domestic waste rather than the remains of human burials and further indicates that the area of test excavation was one of domestic settlement activity.