2001:993 - KILSHARVAN 8, Kilsharvan, Meath

The site was exposed at chainage 19670, in the centre of the proposed motorway in the townland of Kilsharvan, during monitoring of topsoil-stripping carried out by Marcus Casey during groundworks associated with the construction of Contract 7 of the Northern Motorway Project. The site was identified as a possible small pit containing stone and charcoal.

One pit and one modern field drain were exposed. The field drain ran east–west across the site, measured 0.2m in width and had been filled with a large number of angular stones. The pit was circular, 0.31m in diameter and 0.08m in depth. It had been filled with a dark brown–black clay containing occasional inclusions of charcoal flecks. A radiocarbon determination of 3520 ± 100 BP (2130–1610 cal. BC) was obtained for the pit, which places it in the early Bronze Age. No further archaeological features or deposits were exposed and no finds were recovered.

A similar site was exposed at Kilsharvan 13 (No. 998, Excavations 2001, 01E0188), where another single pit was exposed. The pit at Kilsharvan 8 is also contemporary with the site exposed at Kilsharvan 15 (No. 1000, Excavations 2001, 01E0190), which was also dated to the early Bronze Age. Although the pit does not represent the presence of a larger site within the motorway corridor, it may represent an outlying pit of a potential site outside the motorway corridor to the south-west, possibly a fulacht fiadh.