Fulacht fia

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological testing (04E0926) by S. Keith (2005) at Testing Area 3 of Contract 4 of the M3 motorway identified a burnt mound (excavations.ie 2004:1311) that was partially excavated (E003127) by E. Lyne (2010) as Phoenixtown 6 in August 2006 (excavations.ie 2007:1372). An area of 800 square metres was opened revealing the burnt mound at the SW edge of the road-take.

The mound (dims 11m plus N-S; 8m plus E-W; T 0.1m) had a circular trough (diam. 1.85-2.1m; D 0.7m) with a flat base at its W edge. Attached to this at N was a triangular pit (dims 3.4m x 3.2m; max. D 0.3m) that was truncated at N but had an apex at the lip of the trough and was probably a drainage channel. About 2m to the NW a rectangular trough (dims 1.98m NW-SE; 0.51m NE-SW; D 0.39m) was cut by a post-medieval ditch at N and remains largely unexcavated in the baulk at SW. All these features were filled with broken and burnt stone. Samples of ash charcoal provided C14 dates of 1742-1617 cal. BC (UBA 11106) from the circular trough and 2119-1895 cal. BC (UBA 11108) from the rectangular trough, placing the monument in the Early Bronze Age. Outside the extent of the burnt mound a barbed and tanged arrowhead was found in a thin deposit, and a possible hearth (dims 0.95m x 0.8m; D 0.17m) filled with a light brown/grey silty clay yielded a C14 date of 3770-3654 cal. BC (UBA 11107) from a hazelnut shell, placing that feature in the Early Neolithic. (Lyne 2010, 5-7)

See the attached plan from Lyne (2010, fig. 5)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload; 23 March 2022

References

Keith, S. 2005 M3 Clonee-North of Kells; Contract 4, Navan - Kells and Kells Bypass. Report on Archaeological Assessment at Testing Area 3 in Phoenixtown, County Meath. Licence: 04E0926. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

Lyne, E. 2010 M3 Clonee – North of Kells, Contract 4, Navan to Kells and Kells Bypass. Final Report on Phoenixtown 6, Co. Meath. Licence: E003127. Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy