County: Meath Site name: JOHNSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 01E0619
Author: Richard Clutterbuck, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 678008m, N 740453m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.408441, -6.826745
This site was discovered on 14 June 2001. Fourteen features were recorded, all of which cut into the natural yellow sandy subsoil. The site was found at a depth of c. 0.3m beneath the surface (at 75.63m OD), and consisted of three oval areas of dark brown to black soil cut into the underlying natural subsoil. The oval features ranged in size from 0.94m by 0.9m by 0.15m deep to 1.3m by 1.1m by 0.3m deep. Upon investigation the features were found to be shallow with flat bases; it was also found that at least one of the stains contained two pits, which cut one another. The fills of all of the pits were quite similar and consisted of black silty clay with large amounts of burnt sandstone and charcoal. One contained a possible chert scraper. Eight linear features cutting across were found to be modern cultivation furrows, one of which contained a flint flake, possibly also Neolithic in date, which appears to have been disturbed by later cultivation; flint débitage and an iron nail were recovered from another furrow. A Neolithic flint plano-convex blade was found out of context in the interface between the subsoil and the overlying ploughsoil. Three samples of soil are to be sent for analysis; seven samples of charcoal are also being sent and it is hoped that at least one of these samples is suitable for dating.
The site has been fully excavated and recorded. It is recommended that an assessment should be carried out of any future developments in its vicinity.
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