2001:998 - KILSHARVAN 13, Kilsharvan, Meath
County: Meath
Site name: KILSHARVAN 13, Kilsharvan
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A
Licence number: 01E0188
Author: Ian Russell, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Author/Organisation Address: 15 Trinity Street, Drogheda, Co. Louth
Site type: Pit
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 669970m, N 810284m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.673397, -6.350355
The site was exposed at chainage 19569, in the eastern portion of the proposed motorway in the townland of Kilsharvan, during monitoring of topsoil-stripping carried out during groundworks associated with the construction of Contract 7 of the Northern Motorway Project. The site was identified as a roughly circular feature containing burnt soil, stones and charcoal, possibly natural.
A single oval pit was exposed on site. It measured 1.34m in length, 1m in width and 0.2m in depth and contained sloping sides to the north, east and west, becoming more vertical to the east and extending to a base which sloped from north to south; it had been filled with a soft, mid-grey silty clay containing occasional inclusions of charcoal flecks and angular burnt stones. A flint scraper was recovered from the fill.
No further archaeological features or deposits were exposed. It is likely that the pit may be an outlying pit from a potential archaeological site, possibly a fulacht fiadh, in the adjacent field to the north-east between the proposed motorway and the Crufty Road.