What is recorded here

On a SE-facing slope near a hilltop in County Clare, a bowl-shaped pit held cremated bone in a small container, perhaps a bag, before old subsoil masked the burial. The person may have chosen that spot for its wide views, placing what remained of a life where the sky still reached them. Bronze Age hands did the work, and the hill has kept the secret ever since.

This record is for a pit-burial, excavated in 2002 as part of the Bord Gáis Éireann Pipeline to the West project (Licence no. 02E1153). Situated on a SE-facing slope near a hilltop with good views in all directions except NW. A single bowl-shaped cremation pit was excavated (diam. 0.34m; D 0.19m). The pit fill was a grey/brown fine silt with very occasional small stone inclusions (diam. typically 0.05m). Cremated bone was present as a discrete deposit near the base of the pit. Some charcoal flecking was also recorded. The excavated feature most probably represents a human burial of perhaps Bronze Age date. The discrete placement of the cremated bone suggests that it may have been held in a small container such as a bag. Some effort had then seemingly been made to mask the burial with old subsoil. (Hull 2004, 52, no. 198) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 10 October 2016

Pit-burial in Racorcraun is a single inhumation burial, likely dating to the Early Christian or early medieval period. Its location suggests a possible ritual or strategic significance, though wider archaeological context remains limited.

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