House - Neolithic

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated on a fairly level 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 on the route of the E link road to Kells that was excavated (E003144) in February and March 2007 by Y. Whitty (2011) as Kilmainham 3 (excavations.ie 2007:1338) when an area of 5176 square meters was opened and five structures were recorded. Two structures that were probably houses and a timber circle were associated with Grooved ware. Nearby, portion of an Early Bronze Age ring-ditch was excavated, and about 50m S of the timber circle were five postholes and some pits of an Early Neolithic date.

Structure 1 is situated on a rise c. 20m SSE of the timber circle and is composed of five postholes, four of which form a subrectangular feature (dims c. 1.7m N-S; 0.5-2m E-W) with the fifth c. 1.2m to the S. A sample of hazelnut shell from one of the postholes provided a C14 date of 2872-2622 cal. BC (UBA 12081). There are three stone-lined pits (diam. 0.55-0.65m; D 0.2-0.31m) just S of the structure, two of which contained cremated bone and can be interpreted as pit-burials, although the only bone identified from one was animal bone. A sample of hazelnut shell from the other yielded the radiocarbon determination of 2858-2496 cal. BC (UB 12082). The pits were arranged around the base of a Grooved ware vessel and extend the rectangular structure into a trapezoid (dims 4.2m N-S; 2.2m E-W at S). As well as Grooved ware pottery 40 pieces of flint were recovered, including two leaf-shaped cutting tools and a scraper on a long blade. (Whitty 2011, 7-10)

See the attached plans from Whitty (2011, figs 5, 7)
ME017-088002-_1 Site plan;
ME017-088002-_2 Plan;

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 22 March 2022

References

Whitty, Y. 2011 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 4, Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Final Report on Kilmainham 3, Co. Meath. Licence: E003144. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

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 Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy