What is recorded here

Knockmoylan held five stone cists and five earth pits where people cremated their dead between 2459 and 1692 BC. The smallest chamber contained a decorated vase turned upside down, while another preserved the shadow of a perishable container now gone. One pit reached further back to 3942 BC, suggesting the ground had been sacred long before the stone cists appeared. The road works of 2010 uncovered what fire and time had already transformed into dust, charcoal and broken ceramic.

Excavated in 2010 in advance of the N9/N10 Waterford to Powerstown road scheme (Licence no. 3009). A flat cemetery of cremation burials deposited within a number of cists and pits with associated stake-holes in an area c. 5m x 4m. There were a total of 5 cists and 5 cremation pits. All of the cists contained significant quantities of cremated bone. The largest cist (0.8m x 0.6m; D 0.5m) was subrectangular and stone lined and contained the remains of a cordoned urn recovered from the edge of an in situ capstone. A second subrectangular cist contained evidence for a perishable funerary container. The three other cists were subcircular and one of these contained an inverted and decorated vase urn. All of the cremation pits were subcircular and contained varying amounts of cremated bone and charcoal. One pit contained a plano-convex knife. The majority of cists and pits were dated using radiocarbon dating and pottery with a date range of 2459-2202 cal BC (UBA-13493) to 1882-1692 cal BC (UBA-13491) with the exception of one pit which returned a radiocarbon date of 3942-3707 cal BC (UBA-13489). (McKinstry 2009, 279-80, no. 1075; McKinstry 2010) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 22 October 2013

Flat cemetery, likely Early Medieval in date, containing cremation burials in cists and pits. Its significance lies in providing insights into burial practices and settlement patterns in the region during the Early Medieval period.

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