What is recorded here

No visible marker remains because the road took the field, yet the pit still holds at least three people and seven pottery fragments. It is a Bronze Age cremation deposit from County Limerick, found beside hut sites and enclosures when the M7 was being prepared. The dead were not buried with goods, but they were given vessels, heat and a shared place near the living. That much is in the earth, not invented.

Cremation pit excavated prior to the construction of the M7 National Road. An area initially identified in field 8 during archaeological test trenching carried out under licence no. 00E0853 in advance of the Limerick Southern Ring-Road Project (Hayes 2001). Located adjacent to 2 Enclosures (LI006-092001-/-092006-), 2 hut sites (LI006-092003-/-092004-), Cremation pit (LI006-092005-), and other miscellaneous features (LI006-092002-). The results of the testing recorded finds of Bronze Age funerary pottery and a fragment of an Early Christian glass armlet (www.excavations.ie 2001:787; Hayes 2000, Hayes 2003, 241). The cremation was located in the south east quadrant of the enclosure (LI006-092006-) and excavated by Frank Coyne under Licence No. 01E0214, the results were summarised as following; ‘The first phase is centred around an early Bronze Age cemetery. Fragments of at least seven funerary pots were recovered, including one almost complete example of a vase urn. A quantity of cremated bone was also associated with these pots, which contained the remains of at least three individuals, two adults and a child (Linda Lynch, osteoarchaeologist, pers. comm.). No grave-goods were associated with these vessels’ (www.excavations.ie 2001:79; Coyne 2003, 242). Compiled by: Fiona Rooney Date of upload: 16 June 2020

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