What is recorded here

In Carrigaline Middle, a subcircular pit held dark clay, charcoal and burnt bone above a limestone base. The chamber was small enough to hide beneath a kitchen floor, yet the heat-fractured stones suggest a violent fire raged there before the dirt fell. Perhaps a family kept a sacred flame in that shallow hole, marking time with smoke and charred marrow. The pit did not demand much space, but it required attention, patience and the courage to keep burning in the dark.

During archaeological test-trenching in advance of a housing development, a subcircular pit (0.5m x 0.3m) was discovered. The pit contained a dark brownish-black humic silty-clay with frequent charcoal inclusions and occasional fragments of burnt bone and heat-fractured angular stones (c. 40mm long). A relatively large piece of limestone was noted immediately to the north of the deposit and appeared to underlie the material. The pit shares similar characteristics with two other pit-burials (CO087-135----; CO087-138----) found in the vicinity. (Sherlock 2002, 12-13) The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009). Date of upload: 22 December 2009

A pit-burial; likely dating to the Early Medieval period, it may represent a simple inhumation or ritual deposit. Its significance lies in providing evidence of early settlement or funerary practices in the Carrigaline area.

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