Pit, Spittle, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Settlement Sites
A shallow pit containing cremated human bone, broken pottery, and dozens of flint flakes is not the sort of thing that announces itself.
This particular pit, in a pasture field in Spittle townland in County Limerick, had no surface expression whatsoever. It does not appear on the Ordnance Survey six-inch maps. It was only found because a gas pipeline was being laid through the landscape, and the removal of sod and topsoil in 1988 revealed something that had been sitting undisturbed beneath the grass for millennia.
Archaeologist Eoin Grogan excavated what turned out to be one of three isolated pits along this stretch of the Bórd Gáis Éireann Curraleigh West to Limerick pipeline corridor, recorded in a 1988 report by Gowen. The pit now known as Pit 3 lay more than 100 metres away from its two companions, a separation that sets it apart even within this small cluster. What survived was modest in size, just 1.30 metres by 1.10 metres and only 13 centimetres deep, and even that remnant had been truncated, meaning part of it had been cut away, probably by later agricultural activity. Despite its diminished state, the fill was revealing. The dark, charcoal-rich soil contained cremated bone alongside fragments of two coarse pottery vessels, including the remains of one relatively complete pot, and forty-six struck flint flakes. Struck flint refers to stone that has been deliberately knapped or chipped to produce a sharp edge or usable piece, though Grogan noted that none of the forty-six pieces here showed signs of further shaping or retouching. The combination of cremated bone, charcoal, and pottery suggests a prehistoric burial or depositional event, though the record stops short of a definitive interpretation.
The site sits approximately 90 metres south of the townland boundary with Duntryleague, in ordinary-looking pasture, with two related pits lying around 100 metres to the southeast and an enclosure a further 40 metres beyond those. There is nothing visible at ground level now. For anyone interested in the pipeline archaeology of the period, Gowen's 1988 publication remains the key reference, and the National Monuments record for County Limerick holds the formal site details. The broader area around Duntryleague is worth attention in its own right, as it contains other prehistoric remains, and the clustering of these pits suggests that this quiet corner of Limerick was, at some point, a place where people returned to carry out deliberate and meaningful acts.