Cremation pit in Brackbaun

This site was investigated under Ministerial Directive A035/00 in advance of the N8 road improvement scheme between Cashel, Co. Tipperary, and Mitchelstown, Co. Cork. It was located on low-lying pastureland at the foothills of the Galtee Mountains and was situated 75m to the east of Site 4602A2 (see No. 1244 below, E2339) and 210m south-west of Site 4602A3 (see No. 1245 below, E2340). The site lay at 117.32m OD and the area of excavation measured 18m by 13m. A single cremation burial was excavated [E2338] on the site. The burial was contained within an upright food vessel that had been placed within an unlined pit. The pottery was fragmented, but most of the vessel survived. The cremated bone was deposited with black charcoal-rich silty sand and a similar deposit of black silty sand with a higher charcoal content was found beneath the food vessel. At the time of writing, specialist analysis is ongoing (McQuade, Molloy & Moriarty 2009, 125).