Pit-burial in Mounthawk

'Monitoring of the development of a new housing estate [Excavation No: 96E390] on the western suburbs of Tralee was undertaken and a number of potential archaeological findspots were identified......... two cremation burials, C5 [KE029-237001-] and C6 [KE029-237002-], were recorded in close proximity to each other. Burial 1 (C5) was a very simple, shallow, truncated pit which had cut into the natural. Burial 2 (C6) was very severely truncated, with only the basal remains of the pit in situ. Neither of these burials displayed any above ground manifestations to indicate their likely presence. Both pits contained a good representation of parts of a single human skeleton. Five sherds of coarseware pottery were recovered from one of the cremations initial examination has tentatively assigned them to the Late Bronze Age.' Description from ‘The Prehistoric Settlement of the Lee Valley, Tralee, Co. Kerry; A Landscape Perspective’ by Michael Connolly. PhD Thesis UCC 2008 Date of upload: 10 July 2012

Pit-burial in Mounthawk is a funerary pit dating to the Early Christian or Early Medieval period, based on the presence of cremation burials. Its significance lies in providing evidence of local burial practices in a suburban setting during a time of transition in Irish religious and social history.