County: Wicklow Site name: Cooldross
Sites and Monuments Record No.: n/a Licence number: 17E0646
Author: Liza Kavanagh
Site type: Pits and token burnt bone deposits
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 729857m, N 707635m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.103469, -6.060707
Monitoring took place at the site of a housing development in Cooldross, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow between December 2017 and February 2018. During monitoring a small area, 9m by 8.5m, was fenced off to facilitate the excavation of a number of pits uncovered. The excavation recorded the remains of seven pits, five with token burnt bone deposits.
Five of the seven pits excavated contained token deposits of burnt bone. It is highly degraded, white to light grey in colour and crumbly in texture. The pits from which the burnt bone was recovered varied in shape and form but can be broadly described as sub-circular to sub-oval and shallow (none greater than 0.15m deep). These small, possible cremation deposits, are commonly attributed to the Bronze Age (2500 BC – 500 BC). However until further analysis takes places they cannot be reliably attributed to any time period nor can it be confidently confirmed that the remains were human and not animal.
Two further shallow sub-circular pits were excavated within this area, both containing charcoal-rich deposits. These may represent waste pits associated with burning of the cremation deposits, or possibly waste pits associated with an isolated activity.
c/o IAC Ltd, Unit G1 Network Enterprise Park, Kilcoole, Co. Wicklow
