2002:1338 - DUNDALK: Area 8, Marshes Upper, Louth

Excavation at Area 8, Dundalk Institute of Technology, took place on 2 and 3 April 2002. This site was one of twenty areas of archaeology identified across the development, which involved the construction of six playing fields, with associated access road, car-parking facilities, running track, palisade fencing, drainage and power-line burial.

The site consisted of a single cooking pit, an oval cut measuring 1.25m north–south by 0.8m, with a maximum depth of 0.3m (9.14m OD). An area of 10m by 10m was cleaned around the pit but failed to reveal further archaeological features. The pit contained three deposits. The primary deposit was a loose, mid- to dark brown, sandy clay with patches of redeposited oxidised clay (c. 20% of deposit). There were occasional small, subangular pebbles (c. 10% of deposit) and very occasional traces of cow molar (<1%). It was 0.05m deep. The secondary deposit was loose, dark brown, sandy clay, with frequent heat-fractured stone throughout (c. 15% of deposit), as well as unburnt rounded/sub-rounded pebbles (<5% of deposit). A large amount of charcoal was noted, both fragments and flecking, which accounted for 20% of the deposit, in association with moderate amounts of animal teeth, all of which appeared to be bovine, and occasional amounts of unidentifiable cremated bone (<1%). The deposit measured 0.94m north–south by 0.54m and was a maximum depth of 0.2m. The final deposit seemed to represent a natural accumulation of soil sealing the archaeological deposits after the feature had ceased to be used. A radiocarbon date of AD 70–420 (2-sigma calibration) was obtained.

Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth