2001:948 - CLARISTOWN 3, Claristown, Meath
County: Meath
Site name: CLARISTOWN 3, Claristown
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A
Licence number: 01E0040
Author: Ian Russell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Author/Organisation Address: 15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
Site type: Pit and Hearth
Period/Dating: Iron Age (800 BC-AD 339)
ITM: E 713944m, N 768570m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.654481, -6.276251
The site was exposed in the townland of Claristown to the north of the cairn and cemetery at Claristown 2 (see No. 947, Excavations 2001, 01E0039) at chainage 13550 during earlier archaeological monitoring of topsoil-stripping conducted by Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Two pits, two hearths and one modern field drain were exposed below a thin layer of mixed topsoil and natural clay. The first pit was oval in plan and measured 0.36m in length, 0.28m in width and 0.09m in depth; its sides sloped gradually to a rounded base and it was filled with a light brown silty clay and fragments of burnt bone. The second pit was roughly oval in plan and measured 0.6m in length, 0.4m in width and extended to a depth of 0.31m. Its gradually sloping sides became steeper towards the north, extending to a flat base, and it was filled with a black humic clay and gravel.
The first hearth was exposed to the north-west of the site. It was subrectangular in plan and measured 1.32m in length by 0.86m in width, with a maximum depth of 0.31m. Its sides sloped gradually to an overall flat base and it had been filled with coarse grey sandy loam containing frequent inclusions of gravel, angular stone and moderate charcoal flecks to a depth of 0.2m. This lay above a thin layer of black boulder clay, possibly caused by natural decayed stone, which in turn lay above a layer of oxidised clay 0.1m thick. The second hearth was exposed 9.5m north of pit F016. It was oval in plan and measured 0.58m in length, 0.34m in width and 0.1m in depth. Its sides sloped gradually to a rounded concave base, and it had been filled with a coarse red oxidised clay which lay below a thin deposit of black clay, 0.02m thick.
The exposed features do not indicate the presence of a larger site within the proposed motorway corridor. A radiocarbon date of 2070 ± 60 BP (cal. BC 340–320; cal. BC 210–cal. AD 60) was recovered from F001, placing the hearth fill in the late Iron Age. This date indicates that the hearth was contemporary with the Iron Age phase of occupation at Claristown 2, and suggests that both sites are associated.