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.

This is a rectangular structure (dims c. 3.5m NE-SW; c. 3m NW-SE) located c. 22m N of the timber circle. It has three to four postholes on each side except the NW which has none apart from the corner posts, and a porch (dims 2.2m NW-SE; 0.6m NE-SW) extends from the SE side. Four pits in the vicinity contained some burnt bone, and 50 sherds of Grooved ware from the same vessel and some lithics were recovered from the largest (dims 1.95m x 1.04m; D 0.2m). Sherds of Grooved ware were also recovered from some of the postholes. A radiocarbon date of 2855-2496 cal. BC (UBA 12093) was returned from the large pit which matched dates of 2878-2637 cal. BC (UB 12094) and 2918-2779 cal. BC (UBA 12092) from two of the postholes, but a third posthole provided a date in the Mesolithic of 5197-4913 cal. BC (UBA 12091) and must be contaminated with residual material. The environmental samples were dominated by oak followed by hazel. (Whitty 2011, 17-21)

See the attached plans from Whitty (2011, figs 5, 11)
ME017-088004-_1 Site plan;
ME017-088004-_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 Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy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 Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy