2001:1056 - SHEEPHOUSE: Site 2 Ext., Meath

The site was discovered during monitoring along the line of the Northern Motorway, Contract 7 (Drogheda Bypass). It was in an area of firm ground on a south-facing slope rising up from the River Boyne, between a large enclosure excavated by Dermot Nelis (Site 3, Sheephouse, see No. 1057, Excavations 2001, 00E811) and a multi-period prehistoric site excavated by Declan Moore (Site 2, Sheephouse, see No. 1055, Excavations 2001). When first uncovered by mechanical excavator, during topsoil removal, the site appeared as a scattering of eleven small clusters of subsoil-cut features and spreads grouped within an area measuring approximately 90m east–west by 190m.

The archaeology uncovered is not of an easily definable character. A scattering of typical subsoil-cut features, such as refuse-pits, hearths and stake- and post-holes, occurred across the site, but no identifiable structures were excavated. Two areas of metalled surfaces, one at the north-west of the site and one at the south-east, were identified. Although the surfaces differed in size they were both associated with small to medium-sized pits filled with typical burnt mound material, and similar charcoal and heat-shattered stone deposits were removed from above both surfaces.

The possibility that burnt mound-type activity occurred in the vicinity of these surfaces is reinforced by the presence of an apparently timber-lined trough immediately to the north of the smaller surface and a possible trough some distance to the south of the larger. However, no upstanding mounds or extensive ploughed-out deposits of mound material were uncovered at either end of the site. The archaeology did, however, extend beyond the limit of the road-take.

The presence of a large, mostly sterile, pit associated with the smaller metalled surface at the north of the site was mirrored by a series of large pits at the south of the site. Although these pits were not clearly or stratigraphically linked with the larger surface, their fills, like those in the northern pit, were largely sterile silty clays with infrequent inclusions of charcoal. The considerable size of these features, combined with the sterile, silty nature of their fills, makes the interpretation not only of their initial purpose but also the nature of their abandonment difficult.

The site as a whole produced very few artefacts. Ceramic material recovered from one pit at the south of the site may date from the Bronze Age. A possible link may be drawn between this and the large enclosure immediately to the south of the site, which may also date from the Bronze Age (see No. 1057 Excavations 2001, Site 3, Sheephouse, 00E0811).

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