Cremation pit in Cookstown Great

Situated on a fairly level landscape c. 55m WNW of a fulacht fia and with a canalized N-S stream that changes direction to W-E c. 45m to the E. Archaeological testing (04E0918) by D. Nelis (2005) in Testing Area 9 of Contract 4 of the M3 motorway identified burnt mound material (excavations.ie 2004:1213) that was excavated (E003138) by G. McLoughlin (2010) as Cookstown Great 2 during January and February 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1291) when an area of 9600 square metres was opened and three prehistoric phases were identified. An elongated pit (dims 2.42m E-W; 1.14m N-S; D 0.25m) had a basal deposit of black charcoal-rich soil with six sherds from a cordoned urn, some of which had line-impressed decoration, and a flint blade. There were also calcined animal bones. A fragment of hazel charcoal from this deposit produced a C14 date of 1607-1450 cal. BC (UBA 11088), placing what was probably a cremation pit in the Middle Bronze Age. (McLoughlin 2010, 6-7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 23 March 2022