1999:637 - RICHARDSTOWN, Louth

In September 1999 archaeologists monitoring the line of the new Ardee to Dunleer road reported the discovery of an area of intense prehistoric activity on a low gravel ridge, overlooking the River Dee (An Níth). The site was first identified as a series of cut and burned features exposed during small-scale quarrying on the top of the ridge. A rescue excavation was undertaken on behalf of Dúchas The Heritage Service.

An area measuring 15m x 30m was excavated. Although the features on the site were severely truncated by ploughing, three distinct phases of activity were identifiable. Although definitive 14C dates have yet to be obtained, the phases have been putatively dated to the Neolithic and Bronze Age periods on the basis of the material assemblage found in the features.

The partially burnt remains of a subrectangular plank-built structure, probably a house, represented the earliest phase of activity on the site. The house was defined on three sides by a foundation or bedding trench. The northern side of the house was markedly curved. Its long axis was orientated north-north-west/south-south-east, and it measured 11.4m x 7.54m. It had an internal arrangement of at least six large post-holes and had at least two, if not three, external post-holes. There were also three large post-holes along the line of the foundation trench. The full extent of the structure was not recovered, however, owing mostly to the damage caused by the quarrying, as well as to interference from the Later Bronze Age pits. The surviving portions of the house indicate that it consisted of at least one large room, and probably two, with a short internal division extending at a right angle from the foundation trench near its south-western end. The entrance or doorway appears to have been at the same point, as indicated by a gap in the trench and two large, flanking post-holes. A small hearth was found just inside the doorway. Neolithic artefacts recovered from these features and associated pits include retouched flint blades and a polished sandstone axehead.

Bronzeworking was the second phase of activity on the site. The features uncovered, some of which cut across the house, include what appears to be a quatrefoil-shaped furnace with four flues and a vent, an irregular, bowl-shaped furnace, two large roasting pits and three pits filled with ash and charcoal-rich soil. Bronze slag and a number of sherds of coarseware pottery were found in the fill of the furnace.

The third phase of activity on the site may also date to the Bronze Age. It consisted of two large pit burials, one clearly post-dating the other, at the highest point of the ridge to the north of both the house and bronzeworking area. A token deposit of cremated bone was recovered from the base of the second, later pit, but there were no surviving human remains in the first. A number of flint flakes were found in the stone- and clay-filled upper fill of both pits. A stake-hole on the southern edge of the earlier pit suggests that the burials were also marked in some way above ground.

The line of a 19th-century field drain that ran across the area of the house was also uncovered and partly excavated.

After the excavation was completed, the site was returned to the landowner, who, it is understood, intended to continue quarrying.

6 Ely Place Upper, Dublin 2