County: Dublin Site name: Mooretown, Swords
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 19E0287
Author: Steven McGlade
Site type: Late Neolithic offering pit
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 716270m, N 747730m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.466768, -6.248840
A programme of archaeological monitoring and excavation was carried out at Mooretown, Swords in April and May 2019. The truncated remains of a pit containing an upright Grooved Ware vessel was uncovered centrally within the site. A number of packing stones were identified surrounding the pot. The vessel had been dragged during ploughing activity in the past. Some burnt bone and charcoal was retrieved from the fill of the pit, though it was heavily truncated. A radiocarbon date of 2573-2463 cal. BC was returned from alder charcoal within the pit. The vessel appeared to have been placed in the pit intact.
A number of additional fire pits and possible waste pits were identified across the site.
There was no specific pattern noted to the other features uncovered, though five of the pits exhibiting burning were clustered to the east of the Late Neolithic pit. The site is located within a rich archaeological landscape, with a Bronze Age urn burial identified to the north in Oldtown townland along with a second cremation pit, while ring-ditches and fulachtaí fia are also known from the vicinity.
Later agricultural ditches were also identified during the monitoring programme. These were not depicted on Ordnance Survey mapping, however they conform to the existing field layout and are likely to be post-medieval in date, possibly reflecting field enlargement in the 19th century.
Archaeology Plan, 32 Fitzwilliam Place, Dublin 2
