2017:665 - Corballis 3, Dublin

The excavation of a Burnt Mound site previously identified by test-excavations (17E0094) took place in advance of a road scheme. The excavation revealed the degraded remains of a burnt mound/fulacht fia. A thin spread of typical burnt mound/fulacht fia material, i.e. heat-affected stone in a charcoal-rich soil, overlay, and similar material filled, several subsoil-cut features. The shallow spread of material, no deeper than 0.1m, likely indicates significant plough interference or other levelling activity over time. A sub-rectangular pit, C8, (1.89m north-east/south-west x 0.92m x 0.33m) appeared as the most likely trough. A long (8.5m), narrow shallow channel, C14, fed into the pit, perhaps to control the water level in it. Several other shallow pits or possible post-holes, e.g. C3, C5, and C10, were identified with no obvious pattern to their location. Human bones (unburnt) were retrieved from the fill of pit C3 and the volume of skeletal material (8 fragments, 15g) suggests that this represents re-deposition of a partial or disturbed skeleton. The pit was relatively shallow, 0.11m in depth, and no other fragments were found during clean-back or in any of the other features suggesting a deliberate deposit rather than a random accumulation. The largest feature, pit C16, (6.2m north-west/south-east (including ledge); diam. 5.1-4.8m; depth 1.2m) was deemed to be a well and the burnt mound's water source as it quickly became inundated during excavation and was left partially unexcavated for practical reasons. The burnt mound material, C18, in the cut of the well, C16, was overlain by a naturally occurring sticky silty clay, C17. Attached to the south-east of the well lay a shallow sub-rectangular pit, C31, containing a post-hole in each corner indicating the presence of a structure within the pit. Whether the post-holes supported a cover for the pit or held in place a wooden lining for the shallow pit, numerous similar examples having been excavated elsewhere, is not possible to discern. No animal bones or artefacts were retrieved from the excavation. Ash (fraxinus) charcoal from the fill (C9) of the trough (C8) returned a radiocarbon date of 1620-1500 cal BC 2ẟ.

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