Ring-ditch

The National Monuments Service's description

Two ring-ditches (ME038-054----; ME038-055----) were discovered in the course of a gradiometer survey (13R0118) by Target Archaeological Geophysics of the large enclosure (ME038-022----) undertaken in October 2013. A test trench (L 20m; Wth 2m) was opened (13E0466) across this feature in January 2014 by R. Meenan which revealed a fosse enclosing a circular area (int. diam. c. 5.6m). Fragments of burnt bone were discovered in a small shallow depression (D 0.1m) at what was thought to be the lip of the fosse at E, but no archaeological objects were found. (Meenan 2014)
Subsequently it was decided to recover the material for its better preservation, and the trench was reopened (19E0084) by A. Hawkes who recovered a cremation burial with a truncated cordoned urn within a shallow pit (diam. 0.5m; D 0.14m) at the centre of the ring-ditch (excavations. ie 2019:120). A broken bronze razor and a polished bone pin were with the cremation. The remains have been identified as those of an adult and a juvenile, with some burnt animal bone, and a sample produced a C14 date of 1732-1530 cal. BC (UBA 40789), dating to the Middle Bronze Age. The U-shaped fosse at E (Wth of top 1.4m; Wth of base 0.75-0.85m; D 0.6m) and W (Wth of top 2.4m; Wth of base 0.7m; D 0.65m) had a lower fill of grey/brown clay beneath a brown silt at E, but a closing layer of yellow/brown clay with some charcoal flecks was present at W. No other artefacts where recovered. An intrusive pit (dims 0.49m x 0.4m; D 0.2m) inside the edge of the fosse at E contained a nineteenth century medicine bottle, and a N-S stone-lined drain was just E of the monument. (Hawkes 2019, 21-31)

Compiled by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 19 April 2016
Amended: 12 April 2022

References

Hawkes, A. 2019 Final Report on Archaeological Excavations at Kilbrew ‘Tayto Park’, Co. Meath. Licence: 19E0084. Unpublished report, Author