Excavation - miscellaneous

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a steep S-facing slope of the River Blackwater, with a WNW-ESE section of the stream c. 500m to the S. Archaeological testing (04E1060) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 9 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological features in a limited area (dims c. 20m x c. 12m) that were completely excavated (E003187) by S. Rathbone in January 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1294) as Derver 1. It consisted of a hearth (dims 0.47m x 0.4m; T 0.12m) with a fire-reddened base, two small pits (dims 0.34m; x 0.22m; D 0.14m: 0.42m x 0.4m; D 0.08m) and a larger pit (dims 2.65m x 1.18m; D 0.38m) with largely sterile fills that had some charcoal flecking. A small cut (dims 0.61m x 0.48m; D 0.15m) produced 33 fragments of Beaker pottery dating to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, 19 of which came from the same vessel, but no radiocarbon date was obtainable. There were also two shallow hollows, one of which (diam. 0.7m; D 0.12m) contained the skeleton of a lamb and may be recent. (Rathbone and Ginn 2008)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 3 March 2022

References

Rathbone, S. and V. Ginn 2008 M3 Clonee to North of Kells; Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Derver 1, Co. Meath. Licence: E003187. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit

Bayley, D. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 9 in Derver, County Meath. Licence: 04E1060. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy