Pit-burial in Woodstown (middlethird By., Killoteran Par.)

Situated on a W-facing slope with a SE-NW stream c. 250m to the W. Identified in centre-line testing (05E0763) of the alternate route of the N25 Waterford city bypass (Russell 2008b), and excavated completely (E3439) as Woodstown 7 during 2007 (O'Hara 2010h). This is a single small pit (dims. 0.4m x 0.35m; D 0.13m) with a fill that included oxidised clay, burnt bone and charcoal that produced a C14 date of cal BC 1870-1600. (O'Hara 2009g, 3, App. 5; O'Hara and Ginn 2011d) Russell, I. (2008b) Various townlands. in I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2005: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, 361, No. 1481. Wordwell. Dublin. O'Hara, R. (2009g) N25 Waterford bypass alternative route. Archaeological investigation. Contract 1. Final report on the Archaeological excavation of Woodstown 7. E3439. Unpublished report. DEHLG. Archaeological Consultancy Services. O'Hara, R. (2010h) Woodstown 7. Pit. in I. Bennett (Ed.) Excavations 2007: summary accounts of excavations in Ireland, 526, No. 1862. Wordwell. Dublin. O’Hara, R. and V. Ginn (2011d) Woodstown 7, Co. Waterford. in J. Eogan and E. Shee-Twohig (2011) Cois tSiúire – nine thousand years of human activity in the lower Suir valley. Archaeological excavations on the N25 Waterford city bypass, vol. 1, 72-3. NRA road scheme: Monograph 8, Dublin Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 13 May 2011

Pit-burial in Woodstown is a single burial site, likely from the Early Medieval period. Its discovery during infrastructure assessments highlights the value of archaeological surveys in uncovering prehistoric and early historic burials in the region.