Pit

The National Monuments Service's description

Archaeological monitoring (15E0577) by P. Duffy, D. Bayle and J. Whitaker of topsoil stripping over a large area (c. 92 ha.) conducted intermittently between Dec. 2015 and October 2018 uncovered 37 locations of potential archaeological importance (excavations.ie 2016:051). Each of these was further investigated by the same archaeologists under different licences. At Site 24, excavation (16E0284) by D. Bayley recorded (excavations.ie 2016:551) a pit that is described as a charcoal-making pit but there is no evidence of burning. The pit (dims 1.36m x 1.16m; max. D 0.38m) had six layers, the basal fill being grey/black silty clay with charcoal and stones beneath three layers of grey to orange silty clays that were topped by a layer of pure charcoal (T 0.04-0.06m). This was covered by a dark brown silty clay with some burnt stone. The charcoal was mainly ash and alder, and a fragment of hazel charcoal from the base provided a C14 date of 2131-1900 cal. BC (FTMC-HR36-22). (Duffy et. al. 2021, 15-16)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 26 April, 2023

Duffy, P., Fairhead, S. & F. Fleeshouven 2021 Final Excavation Report for Sites 3-37, Clonee, Portan, Gunnocks, Co. Meath. Multiple licences, Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy