County: Louth Site name: School Lane, Collon Cremation cemetery
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0064
Author: Rob O’Hara, Archer Heritage Planning, 8 BEaT Centre, Stephenstown, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin.
Site type: 300460 281810
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 700390m, N 781826m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.776331, -6.476929
Two phases of testing were undertaken at the location of a proposed pitch development at School Lane, Collon, Co. Louth. Geophysical survey had been undertaken at the site as part of this assessment but had not conclusively identified archaeological remains.
A total of twenty test-trenches with a combined length of 1188m were mechanically excavated. One archaeological site was identified at the south-eastern corner of the area. An area of 15m x 15m was cleared of topsoil, revealing a group of seven Bronze Age cremation burials. The site was later excavated under an extension to the testing licence.
The archaeological remains survived as a cluster of seven pits containing deposits of cremated human bone and charcoal. Three of the pits contained substantial, but fragmented, pottery vessels inverted over cremated remains. A fourth contained sherds from a broken vessel. The pottery consisted of a single bipartite vase, two cordoned urns with some collared urn affinities and the base of a third cinerary urn. A date of 1900–1730 bc (SUERC 31688 3490±30BP) was returned from a sample of charcoal (Alnus glutinosa) collected from the fill of the pit containing the bipartite, vase food vessel.
