Hut site

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a SW-facing slope in an undulating landscape. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1055) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 4 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1223) identified archaeological material that was fully resolved (E003175) by E. Danaher between November 2006 and January 2007 as Drumbaragh 1 (excavations.ie 2006:1547). A circular hut-site (int. diam. 6.5m N-S; 6m E-W) is defined by an arc of eight post-holes W-N-SSW placed c. 1-2m apart but the SW quadrant is not outlined by postholes. There were three internal post-holes that could provide further roof-support around a subrectangular hearth (dims 0.69m x 0.43m x 0.23m) and some fire-spots. The interior was occupied by eleven pits (dims 0.44m x 0.43m; D 0.21m to 1.16m x 0.6m; D 0.16m) filled with silty clays with varying amounts of charcoal inclusions, some intercutting each other, but two pieces of burnt flint were the only artefacts recovered from them.

There were also some pits immediately outside the hut-site but a group of nine pits (dims 0.42m x 0.4m; D 0.06m to dims 1m x 0.8m; D 0.34m) filled with brown clays and varying amounts of charcoal were in a confined area (dims c. 8m x c. 5m) c. 18m further N. Three of these pits had some evidence of burnt and broken stone, but no artefacts were recovered from them and there was no evidence of a burnt mound. Two radiocarbon dates of 2876-2585 cal. BC (Beta 247173) and 2880-2620 cal. BC (Beta 247174) from samples of hazel charcoal that are derived from contexts in the hut-site closely match five ranging 2872-2476 cal. BC (Beta 247170-247177) from hazel charcoal retrieved from the group of pits placing them all in the Late Neolithic, but a single isolated pit (diam. 0.68m; D 0.27m) c. 6m SW of the others returned a determination of 3699-3523 cal. BC (Beta 247172), placing it in the Early Neolithic. (Danaher and O’Hara 2008)

See the attached plan from Danaher and O'Hara (2008 fig. 8)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 4 March 2022

References

Danaher, E. and R. O’Hara 2008 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 5 Kells to North of Kells, Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Drumbaragh 1, Co. Meath. Licence: E003175. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services

Bayley, D. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 5, Kells to North of Kells. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 4 in Drumbaragh and Castlekeeran, County Meath. Licence: 04E1055. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy