2002:0616 - LAUGHANSTOWN, Dublin

A number of sites were excavated between 2000 and 2002 in this townland before the construction of one of the major interchanges on the South-Eastern Motorway. The interchange covers four fields. The sites were near a wedge tomb, SMR 26:24, and the site of a cairn, SMR 26:26. They included a large, oval, stone ring cairn (Site 35D), two rock outcrops with prehistoric artefact assemblages (Sites 39I and 36E), cremations with ceramics (Site 38H), a cluster of probable post-built structures, pits containing saddle querns, probable fence-lines (Site 40), and a number of earth-cut drying kilns and a post-hole complex (Site 42) (Excavations 2001, No. 442).

Site 25C
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This site was a substantial area of outcropping rock that had been subject to deep and extensive quarrying. It is listed as SMR 26:26. The area is marked ‘Carn’ on the 1843 and 1912 editions of the 6-inch OS map and ‘Cairn (Site of)’ on later maps. The 1912 map places the cairn on the southern side of what was then a significant rock outcrop and what subsequently became the southern side of the quarry. Local people noted that there had been a pile of stones that were not natural in origin at this location before quarrying (Grant 1999). A small area was tested in 1999 with inconclusive results, and therefore a more extensive series of areas was opened as part of the excavations. Five trenches measuring 9m by 2m, one measuring 8m by 2m and one measuring 14m by 2m were excavated in this area. Rock debris, bedrock and natural soil were uncovered, but no features of archaeological importance were found.

Site 37F
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In 2002 work focused on a low cairn in the south-west corner of the field containing the wedge tomb. The cairn measured 15m by 15m and was one stone deep. A number of large, glacial, granite erratic boulders were also present in the natural, orange/brown boulder clay. The cairn had been damaged by south-west/north-east plough furrows, which were clear up until the edge of the stones. In the south-east the cairn was truncated by a rectangular pit, 3m by 2.07m by 0.5m deep, which had a heavily scorched interior. Its charcoal-rich fill contained large quantities of carbonised wheat, oats and barley, along with weed seeds and charcoal. This palaeoenvironmental assemblage suggested a historic date for the pit. A fuller chronology will be provided by radiocarbon dating. Stones were subsequently thrown into the pit and became scorched.

In the south of the site, within and around the cairn stones in a localised area, a cluster of broken cordoned urn sherds was found. These comprised the complete decorated part of a cordoned urn and fragments of another. Neither was associated with burnt bone. Situated 2m east of the cairn material was a stone-lined cist, 1m in diameter and 0.23m deep, containing the cremated remains of one adult. The bone was heavily cremated and was in small fragments. There was no capstone.

Underlying the cairn material, the natural boulder clay was orange/brown, contrasting with the darker boulder clay surrounding it. This may have been the result of mineral leaching from the stones. Under the cairn material was a significant quantity of worked flint: debitage that included leaf-shaped arrowheads, fine concave scrapers and a broken axe that has been identified as having strong affinities with Group VI Great Langdale axes from Cumbria (Irish Stone Axe Project). A number of sherds of Western Neolithic pottery were found associated with a hollow interpreted as a stone socket underlying the cairn. A number of other sherds of vase food vessel were found in the cairn matrix.

Apart from the rectangular pit, the cairn was heavily disturbed during the construction of the probable medieval field boundaries immediately to the south (see Ditch C below).

Site 42
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This site, in the south-west corner of the field containing the wedge tomb, consisted of two earth-cut drying kilns 22m apart and both 2.2m long. Both were figure-of-eight shaped and consisted of a lower, scorched bowl with a higher, unscorched bowl. In both instances the northern, lower chambers were scorched and contained considerable amounts of large granite stones. The fills were found to contain wheat, oats and barley, with a relatively low weed-seed count, suggesting that cleaning and threshing had taken place before drying. The kilns are identical to one found associated with Site 40. In between the kilns was a cluster of twelve post-holes and stake-holes. Nine of these were grouped together in groups of three, consisting of a post-hole and two stake-holes angled away from the post. The complex covered an area of 2m by 2.5m and may have supported an above-ground structure or platform.

At the northern limit of the site three pits were excavated. Two were intercut oval pits containing burnt hazelnut shells. The third pit measured 1.05m by 0.65m and was 0.25m deep. It contained a broken, large, coarse, prehistoric pot that was not associated with burnt bone. There were a number of large stones within the pit, which may have collapsed from above the pit.

Site 48
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A number of pits were found in this area in the field containing the wedge tomb, close to the townland boundary. The first was sub-oval with rounded corners, measuring 0.55m east–west by 0.45m by 0.06m deep, and was truncated by a furrow. This shallow pit contained a smashed Bronze Age vessel. It was not associated with burnt bone. The second pit, also truncated by a furrow, was situated c. 9m to the west. It was subcircular with rounded corners and measured 0.93m north–south by 0.7m by 0.07m deep. It produced seven sherds of prehistoric pottery. No burnt bone was recorded within the fill. The third oval pit measured 0.61m east–west by 0.53m and had a depth of 0.36m; it contained thirteen sherds of Bronze Age pottery.

A further pit was found 35m south of this group. It was an irregularly shaped feature with rounded corners measuring 0.6m north–south by 0.18m by 0.14m deep. It contained a quantity of burnt bone and charcoal and may constitute a disturbed cremation. All of these pits cut the natural boulder clay.

Field system
A linear field system was found in the three fields of Laughanstown. It was delimited by seven non-continuous ditches forming a long, curving strip 100m wide and up to 267m long. Part of the boundary ditch forming the southern part of the system (G) was excavated as part of Site 40. It ran outside the edge of the road-take. A curve in the modern farm laneway may reflect the continuation of this ditch. On the northern side Ditch A ran for 24m and was on average 1.3m wide and 0.7m deep. It stopped at a rounded terminal, and there was a gap of 1m before Ditch B continued. Ditch B was 106m long, averaged 1.3m wide and 0.8m deep, and ran up to a modern field boundary, where it stopped at a rounded terminal. Both of these ditches were clearly visible before excavation, after removal of ploughsoil, indicated by quantities of large granite blocks, which were presumably part of degraded field walls/banks. Ditch D was uncovered emerging from under the modern southern field boundary; it was 45m long and averaged 1.5m wide and 0.8m deep. Here also there were large quantities of granite blocks both within the ditch and to the north of it, suggesting a substantial earth-and-stone boundary probably incorporating stone from the damaged Bronze Age cairn at Site 37F to the north (see above). There was then a gap of 8m before Ditch E continued south-eastward. At this point a further ditch continued southward from Ditch E for 35m and clearly ran under the modern southern boundary of the field (present on the OS first-edition map) containing the wedge tomb. An 11m section of Ditch E was revetted by stone. It was 71m long, 1.16m wide and 1m deep and stopped 11m short of the rock outcrop. A further short stretch of curving ditch (F), 11m long, was found running into the townland boundary farther to the south-east.

In general the ditches were filled with alternating deposits of silt and redeposited natural, along with the large stones that suggested a bank on the northern side. Indeed in places along Ditch D a low bank was present. Artefacts from these ditches were few; however, a quantity of local medieval pottery, a glass fragment, a horseshoe fragment, a plough pebble and residual flint artefacts were recovered. It is unclear why the ditches were not continuous, although they may have formed a drainage system for terraced fields. The presence of substantial banks suggests that they were constructed to keep livestock either in or out. They clearly pre-date the boundaries on the 1843 OS map.

Excavation at all sites was completed in April 2002. A full post-excavation programme is now under way.

Reference
Grant, C. 1999 Archaeological assessment, Laughanstown, Co. Dublin, 98E0261. Unpublished report for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.

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