Pit-burial in Castletown

In 2010, during archaeological monitoring (Excavation Licence No. 10E0414) of ongoing restoration works commissioned by the Office of Public Works within Castletown Demesne, a prehistoric site was uncovered in a trench for a gas pipeline and services ducting traversing the front lawn of the Castletown House. An area measuring approximately 8m x 9m was opened under archaeological direction in order to clarify the nature and context of the find. The site contained a crouched inhumation burial (designated KD011-060001-) and a crushed prehistoric vessel which were fully recorded and removed. They appear to fit with the 'Bowl Tradition' of Bronze Age burial of the later 3rd Millennium BC. The service trench had truncated at least six other pit burials (designated KD011-060002-, KD011-060003-, KD011-060004-, KD011-060005-, KD011-060006- and KD011-060007-). They were recorded in situ and were not subjected to any further disturbance. The pits were sub-circular (diams. 1-2m: D 0.3-0.6m), and, visible in section, filled with quantities of cremated bone. Four sherds of prehistoric pottery were also found. Their morphologies and fills have a similar character to the crouched inhumation. Provisional conclusions are that the site represents a cemetery of pit burials. A concentration of compact stony material of 3m diameter to the north-east of the excavated burial is somewhat suggestive of the surviving core of a low mound (KD011-060-----), otherwise levelled. Significantly two of the smaller sub-1m-diameter pits are set into the edges of this stony material, with three of the larger 2m-diameter pits (including the one containing the excavated burial) lying 0.5-2.5m from its edge. It is possible that this pattern represents insertion of cremations into a small focal mound with inhumations situated around its edges. Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011