County: Wexford Site name: Askunshin 2
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: E004222
Author: Yvonne Whitty, for TVAS (Ireland) Ltd, Ahish, Ballinruan, Crusheen, Co. Clare.
Site type: Pits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 694860m, N 642267m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.523504, -6.602109
Askunshin 2 was located on the proposed M11 Gorey to Enniscorthy scheme. The site was situated in a flat pasture field which slopes slightly from north-east to south-west.
Excavations at Askunshin 2 revealed three pits, one of which contained a substantial amount of prehistoric pottery.
Three inverted Bronze Age pottery vessels (Eoin Grogan, pers. comm.) were uncovered from the single mid-brown/grey silty clay charcoal-flecked fill of a small subcircular pit, which measured 0.4m by 0.35m. It was decided to excavate these vessels in laboratory conditions and consequently the vessels were block-lifted. The three Bronze Age pottery vessels may represent early Bronze Age funerary activity. This burial (or burials) has not yet been dated and it is therefore not clear at this stage whether the features were contemporary.
A sub-oval pit which measured 1.1m in length, 0.7m in width and extended to a depth of 0.17m was located immediately west of the small subcircular pit.
A large irregular pit, which measured 1.12m by 0.62m and was 0.62m deep, contained evidence of burning and was located within 1m of the subcircular pit.
