Excavation - miscellaneous

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a slight E-facing slope in a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological testing (04E0917) by J. Roynane (2005) at Testing Area 10 of Contract 4 of the M3 motorway identified (excavations.ie 2004:1270) archaeological material that was fully excavated (E003142) in January to March 2007 by D. Bayley (2011) as Kilmainham 1B when 15623 square metres in an L-shaped area was opened (excavations.ie 2007:1335) to investigate isolated items from four phases of prehistoric activity ranging from the Neolithic to the Late Bronze Age. The prehistoric material consists mainly of pits and hearths and no structures have been identified. Four early medieval corn-drying kilns, dating 335-560 cal. AD, were also recorded. The excavated area was just S of the multi-period complex of Kilmainham 1C.

Three small pits (dims 0.44m x 0.4m; D 0.11m to 1.4m x 0.68m; D 0.3m) placed close together at the N of the excavated area were sealed by a layer, and 19 sherds of carinated bowls were recovered from the layer and pits. They were c. 15m ENE of a pit (dims 1.47m x 1.08m; D 0.17m) that produced an almost complete Beaker domestic pot with an S-shaped profile. About 35m to the E of the Neolithic pits four sherds of a vase urn were recovered from a single pit (dims 1.35m x 1.15m; D 0.24m), but the main focus of prehistoric activity was about 100m to the SW. Here, four postholes form no pattern but five sherds in the vase urn tradition were recovered from the topsoil. In the vicinity (dims 15m x 15m) were four pits (dims 0.66m x 0.5m; D 0.35m to 1.52m x 0.78m; D 0.19m), a hearth (dims 0.84m x 0.78m; D 0.29m) with a stone-lined base, five postholes and some stakeholes. No pattern was discerned amongst the postholes and stakeholes, but six sherds of a vase urn were recovered, four from the hearth, and some habitation layers close to the hearth provided 52 sherds representing at least three vase urns. All this indicates an Early Bronze Age date for what might have been a temporary habitation.

At the N of the excavated area was a rectangular pit or trough (dims 1.9m NE-SW; 0.7m NW-SE; D 0.25m) with an uneven stone-lined base. The sides of the pit also had a stone lining, caulked with clay that had charcoal and burnt clay inclusions, possibly from a dismantled furnace, as well as burnt bone, including portion of a red deer antler. Larger stones were at the bottom and oak timbers lined the sides above the stones, adhering to the caulking clay. The wood lining had been burnt in situ and the base of the pit had a thin primary layer of black silty clay with charcoal beneath a closing layer of grey/brown silty clay with stones, burnt bone and a piece of burnt clay that may have derived from a mould. A sample of burnt bone from the backfill provided a C14 date of 902-812 cal. BC (UBA 12934), placing it in the Late Bronze Age. It seems to have been designed to retain water and may have been the trough of a fulacht fia but no burnt mound material was present anywhere. Just 10m to the SE a group of six intercutting hearths were adjacent to a working surface of compacted clay and stones (dims 2m x 1.5m; T 0.1m). No diagnostic material was associated with the hearths but they are probably of later prehistoric date and they were cut by one of the corn-drying kilns. (Bayley 2011, 5-15)

See the attached site plan from Bayley (2011, fig. 6)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 16 March 2022

References

Roynane, J. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 4, Navan - Kells and Kells Bypass. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 10 in Kilmainham, County Meath. Licence: 04E0917. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

Bayley, D. 2011 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 4, Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Final Report on Kilmainham 1B, Co. Meath. Licence: E003142. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological