What is recorded here

Beneath the new houses at Gransha, an Early Bronze Age cremation burial waited inside charcoal-rich clay. People had fired a life into ash, placed the remnants beside a broken bowl, and trusted the earth to keep the heat. centuries later, housing builders scraped past the trace, revealing that domestic expansion and ancient loss now share the same ground.

Monitoring of the construction of a residential development at Gransha, Buncrana (April 2007) BY Maurice F. Hurley under licence No. 07E0861, revealed a spread of charcoal-rich material containing six sherds of pottery that are likely to be of Early Bronze Age date, together with six fragments of cremated bone and three flakes of quartz (not worked). The apparent extent of the spread measured 4.5m east–west by 8.5m. Preliminary examination of the pottery suggests the sherds were part of a bowl food vessel. Excavation (September 2007) of the spread revealed the heavily truncated and disturbed remains of an Early Bronze Age cremation burial. The remains consisted of a shallow spread of charcoal-rich grey clay lying directly on the natural boulder clay. No further finds of archaeological significance were uncovered during the excavation of the site (Bennett 2010, 78-9). Compiled by Caimin O'Brien Date of upload/revision : 18 November 2011

A Neolithic cremation burial; significant as part of early farming community funerary practices in the region.

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