2000:0688 - HILL OF RATH, Louth

The features were discovered during a topsoil strip over 830m of the take of the Northern Motorway prior to its construction by Meath County Council. The road ran 300m from the site of a mound with c. 150 cremations under urns, discovered in the 1840s.

Area A
Area A had five archaeological features. F421, a linear pit running off the road-take, contained burnt stone, charcoal flecks, burnt bone, flint and three sherds of cordoned urn. F422, a circular pit, also contained burnt stone, charcoal, burnt bone and five sherds of cordoned urn from the same vessel as the pottery in F421. The features in Area A indicate activity of a funerary nature in the Bronze Age.

Area B
This was a fulacht fiadh, reported in No. 687 Excavations 2000.

Area C
This area measured c. 80m x 130m and comprised about ninety features. These included seven ditches, two of which were curved (F513 and F557); two were L-shaped (F551 and F564), which yielded two sherds of Bronze Age pottery; and three were straight (F536, F528 and F546). F528 and F546 truncated F557, which had numerous small features within its confines.

F560 was a fulacht spread, with a trough, F1378, underneath it. Within the area enclosed by F551 was an area of metalworking activity. F552, F1286 and F1248 were pits with charcoal and slag and slight evidence of flues, and F1286 was a smelting spread. F1247 was linear, 14m x 0.4m x 0.5m deep, composed of firm mid-yellowish/brown, silty sand; it lay on top of the furnaces.

There were six cremations in this area, three of which contained pottery: F1235 was disturbed and contained Western Neolithic and Beaker pottery with Maritime-type decoration; F556 had Western Neolithic pottery; and F548 had grooved ware.

Area C has evidence of activity of various types and in several periods. Further post-excavation work will improve interpretation.

Area D
This area was c. 10m2 and consisted of a group of stake-holes and spreads. F1096, a stake-hole, had ten body sherds of decorated Neolithic pottery of Linkardstown type from a single pot. F1092, a spread of occupation-type material, had twelve sherds from two pots of the Western Neolithic tradition. F1053, another spread, had three sherds. The post-holes did not make a coherent pattern. Area D seems to be the site of successive occupation of a transient nature in the Neolithic.

Area E
Area E was a fulacht fiadh c. 25m square, having about 30 pits of diverse shapes and sizes, two troughs, one with four interior and two exterior post-holes, and two shallow ditch-type features, each about 20m long. All were filled with burnt stone and charcoal fulacht-type deposit. Two flint flakes were found. There was no mound of burnt stone.

Area F
Area F had about 150 features cut into the subsoil, including pits, post-holes, linear features etc. Several yielded finds.

F75 contained 127 sherds of Beaker pottery from at least 30 pots, including two sherds with Maritime-type decoration. This pit (1.7m x 1.2m x 0.2m) also contained one complete and one partial barbed and tanged arrowhead. Closeby, F86 (0.45m x 0.45m x 0.22m) contained a Beaker sherd that joins several from F75. F86 was stone-lined and had a barbed and tanged arrowhead and burnt bone fragments. F88 (1.1m x 0.3m x 0.12m) had a potsherd, possibly from an urn.

Several pits had a clay fill with flints only.

Thirty metres to the south-east was a cluster of features. F663 was a pit (1.7m x 0.98m x 0.21m) with charcoal and 127 sherds of pottery, probably from a single pot of Middle Bronze Age date.

F741 was a pit (1.3m x 0.9m x 0.22m) containing twelve sherds of pottery from a plain, tub-shaped vessel, probably Middle Bronze Age. The pit also contained burnt bone and several flints.

F704 was 2.31m x 1.1m x 0.55m and coffin-shaped, and the fill was a hard, white, fine, clayey silt with occasional charcoal flecks and no finds.

F705 nearby measured 3m x 1.8m x 0.37m, and the fill was a firm, dark grey, clayey silt with three pieces of flint.

F799 was a subrectangular trench dug into the subsoil; the rectangle was 2.3m x 3.3m and the trench 0.2m wide and up to 0.6m deep; the fill was a compact, grey/white, clayey silt with occasional charcoal flecks. There were no finds.

F707 was also subrectangular, 4.4m x 2.2m; the trench was 0.32m wide and 0.13m deep; the fill was a firm, light grey, clayey silt with moderate charcoal flecks. There were no finds.

The features in this area had no stratigraphic relationship. The rough circle of features where the two Middle Bronze Age pots were found indicates a concentration of activities in this area. Several features are enigmatic.

The area indicates transient usage in the Bronze Age. Further study may help interpretation.

Area G
This area had two long ditches. F2 ran in a north-east/south-west direction diagonally across the road-take for c. 110m. It was 1.2m wide and 0.43m deep and had twelve fills. Several of the upper ones were charcoal-rich. Over 200 flints were found in the fill.

F308 was a curvilinear ditch, 42m x 1m and 0.25m deep. It had four fills and contained about thirty flints.

A number of small features in the area were not stratigrapically related to the ditches. F315, a hearth, had three flints. F318, another burning site, had fragments of burnt bone. F326 was four trenches cut into the subsoil describing a circle 4m in diameter. Two flints were recovered from the fill. F341 was a pit (2.5m x 1m x 0.6m) with a stiff, red clay fill with occasional charcoal flecks and one flint. See also F704 and F705, Area F.

Conclusion
The site comprised many features and little stratigraphy. Archaeologically and spatially the features comprise several sites. The fragments of long ditches hint at a landscape that the road-take is too narrow to tell much about. The smaller features lack inter-relationships. The pottery types are diverse: Early and Late Neolithic; Beaker including AOC and Maritime; Grooved; Cordoned Urn; Late Bronze Age; and hints of medieval and early modern. Post-excavation work is ongoing, so conclusions remain to be drawn. Given the dispersed nature of the deposits and the lack of stratigraphy, this will be difficult. However, it seems likely that the features recorded and resolved represent a variety of transient activities in antiquity, including those related to habitation, burial practices and possibly ritual.

Umberstown Great, Summerhill, Co. Meath