Kiln - corn-drying

The National Monuments Service's description

A kiln in the lower N area belongs to Phase 1. It is a truncated feature (dims 2.7m x 1m; D 0.3m) with a scorched base that was cut by gullies of Phase 1. A cereal grain from it was dated to 430-540 cal. AD. A second figure-of-eight kiln (dims 1.28m x 1.04m; D 0.68m) with a scorched base that was c. 20m S of the inner burial ground and had been dug out to house a slightly flexed inhumation. Cereal grain from the kiln produced a C14 date of 380-550 cal. AD, while the burial yielded a determination of 410-570 cal. AD. The burial was cut by the outer fosse of the burial ground. (Seaver 2009, vol. 1, 28-9)
Two figure-of-eight kilns from Phase 2 are located c. 7-12m E of the outer burial ground enclosure. Both are aligned N-S and have oxidized bases, but while one (dims 2.35m x 1.3m; D 0.87m) is isolated and cut into the subsoil the other (dims 2.34m x 1.16m; D 0.3m) is cut by a drain from the fields related to a re-shaping of the outer enclosure of the burial ground. (ibid. 48)
Some hooked gullies c. 40m S of the outer enclosure of the burial ground drained into the mill-races of the southern mill complex and may have been created in order to keep the ground dry in the vicinity of two cereal-drying kilns. The gullies hook around areas with no structures, which may have been where grain was temporarily stored. One kiln is a standard figure-of-eight (dims 2.13m N-S; 0.82-1.19m E-W; D 0.25-0.35m) with a heavily scorched N bowl, while the other kiln is larger (dims 2.7m NW-SE; 1.54-1.6 NE-SW; D 0.62-0.65m) but of the same form with a more densely oxidized NW bowl. A cereal from this kiln yielded a C14 date of 530-650 cal. AD. (ibid. 53-5)
A final kiln just outside the outer enclosure of the burial ground at NE had an L-shaped plan and had at least two phases of use. An E-W heavily scorched bowl (dims 1.35m x 1.1m; max. D 0.38m) has a later stone-lining. A shallow flue (L 0.52m) connects this with an oval bowl (dims 0.84m x 0.5m) to the S. Oak charcoal in a late fill produced a C14 date of 770-980 cal. AD. A scorched pit (diam. 0.9m; D 0.18m) in the N area that produced a C14 date of 650-830 cal. AD may have provided charcoal for this kiln. (ibid. 84)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 20 December 2021

References

Seaver, M. 2009 N2 Finglas-Ashbourne Road Scheme Report on Archaeological Excavation of Site 21, Raystown, County Meath. Licence: 03E1229. Unpublished Final report, vol. 1, text. CRDS