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 29 a single isolated pit (diam. 1.12-1.26m; D 0.44m) with five layers of silty clays that had varying amounts of charcoal was excavated (16E0494) by D. Bayley (excavatioins.ie 2016:556), but inclusions of wood and burnt bone were confined to the upper three fills. The bone was largely undiagnostic but is likely to be faunal. There were low levels of ash and hazel charcoal and a sample of the latter from the basal fill provided a C14 date of 2127-1897 cal. BC (FTMC-BD08-1), placing it in the Early Bronze Age. (Duffy et. al. 2021, 17)

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 Multiple licences, Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy