What is recorded here

Flat cemetery in Croagh, County Limerick: four shallow charcoal pits, some with burnt bone, mark a place where people cremated the dead and let the ashes lie near the ground. The pipeline works uncovered them, but the pits themselves belong to an older time when fire, not burial, answered the question of what happens to a body. They are small, crude, repeated across two phases, which suggests a community certain enough in its ritual to keep returning.

Excavated by Emer Dennehy (02E0877) when 'this site was exposed during the monitoring of topsoil-stripping along the route of a Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West. Four archaeological features and two phases of activity were evident on this site. During Phase I two pits were excavated. Pit I, a circular cut with a concave profile, was 0.48m in diameter and 0.17m deep. The lower deposit consisted of a small amount of limestone and sandstone in a black, charcoal-rich, silty clay matrix. The upper fill was a capping layer of redeposited natural in the centre of the pit. Pit II, a circular cut with a concave profile, was 1.1m in diameter and 0.25m deep. The lower deposit consisted of 10% sandstone and limestone in a black, charcoal-rich, silty peat matrix. The upper deposit was a capping layer of redeposited natural. Phase II is marked by the excavation of a further two pits. Pit III was circular with a concave profile, 0.5m in diameter and 0.16m deep. It contained a uniform charcoal-rich deposit with 10% limestone and a large amount of burnt bone, most of which was concentrated in the south-west quadrant. The fill rose above the level of the surrounding natural and partially covered Pit I. Pit IV, which cut Pit II, was subcircular, measuring 0.37m north-south by 0.61m, and was 0.19m deep. The lower fill was very similar to the surrounding natural and may have been a result of overcutting or been a lining. The upper fill consisted of a small amount of sandstone and limestone in a black, charcoal-rich, silty peat matrix. These four pits, with BGE 3/60/1 (No. 1155 above, 02E0645), c. 10m to the north-west, form part of a flat cremation cemetery.' This description is posted on the web at the following internet address (accessed 3 August 2012): http://www.excavations.ie/ Compiled by: Denis Power Date of Upload: 8 August 2012

A Neolithic flat cemetery; significant as a burial site associated with early agricultural communities in the region.

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