County: Meath Site name: ROSSAN 6
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E1068
Author: Deirdre Murphy, ACS Ltd.
Site type: Metalworking site
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 660234m, N 744612m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.448141, -7.093219
Testing was carried out before construction of the M4 Kinnegad–Enfield–Kilcock Motorway. In February 2002, during centre-line testing of the proposed realignment of the Edenderry Road carried out by Ian Russell (No. 1876, Excavations 2002, 02E0108), a number of possible archaeological features were identified. The site was designated Rossan 6 and was excavated in August 2002.
The features exposed included sixteen pits, three of which contained slag inclusions, fourteen deposits, a field boundary and three cultivation furrows. All were cut into the natural boulder clay. Three pits near one another at the southern end of the site contained substantial slag inclusions. Large amounts of charcoal were evident in the fill of each, and the sides and bases were oxidised, suggesting that smelting took place in situ. These features were quite substantial: one pit measured 3.5m by 3.2m and was 0.44m deep; the second measured 1.48m by 0.63m and was 0.09m deep; and the third measured 0.78m by 0.56m and was 0.42m deep. The slag pieces recovered from all three pits were quite large, one piece measuring 0.22m by 0.12m by 0.12m. Of the remaining thirteen pits, farther north, ten contained charcoal in the fills. These pits were mainly circular and were smaller than the smelting pits. No finds, with the exception of an unworked piece of flint, were recovered from the fills. Most of the deposits across the site contained charcoal flecks and inclusions of oxidised clay.
Presumably this site was a metalworking area, and it is possible that the smaller pits were used to produce charcoal to aid the smelting process. The deposits may represent the dumping of waste material from the pits or, alternatively, may be related to more recent land clearance. The site has been extensively ploughed, and the presence of blackened tree-root channels across the site suggests widespread site clearance using fire. It is likely that agricultural practices and land clearance have destroyed other archaeological remains at this site.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth
