2005:AD11 - KNOCKS (1), Meath

The site was excavated between November 2005 and January 2006 in advance of the M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway scheme (Contract 1: Dunboyne to Dunshaughlin). The site comprised a c. 35m-diameter subcircular ring-ditch, with a 2m-wide entrance gap to the north-east, and was situated on a north-facing slope at the flood-plain margin of a tributary of the River Scéine, at around 95m above OD. Located during the initial EIS phase, it was later subjected to geophysical and topographical survey and mechanical test-trenching, by Tara O Neill (Excavations 2004, No. 1279, 04E0478), prior to full excavation.

Although the ring-ditch was largely penannular in plan, excavation revealed a number of areas where the ditch was not continuous and three closely set rounded terminals were evident, in addition to the two situated on either side of the entrance. A further set of stubs or narrowings at various locations around the circuit suggest that as many as eight curvilinear segments originally existed, each c. 6m in length, separated by a similar-sized gap. At a later date, presently unknown but possibly during the Early to Middle Bronze Age, the ditch segments were joined up to form an almost continuous circuit, albeit one with a curious shape not dissimilar to that of a scallop shell (there seems to have been no thought given to maintaining the overall circularity of the original ditch, therefore resulting in a number of straight edges).

The ditch varied between 1.25 and 1.6m in width and 0.7 and 1.5m in depth. For the most part, it had a wide, U-shaped profile with near-vertical sides. Approximately one-third of the ditch circuit, at the southern end of the site, was cut into a compact, mid-yellowish-brown silty clay layer overlying a layer of small to medium-sized, sub-angular stones in a mid-yellowish-brown to mid-greyish-brown silty clay matrix. The remaining two-thirds of the ditch circuit were cut through layers of compact gravels and mid- to dark-greyish-brown, silty clay overlying bedrock.

Where the ditch cut through the yellowish clay layers, it was filled almost exclusively with a similar material, making it extremely difficult to identify during excavation, and appears to have been deliberately backfilled shortly after its construction. The other two-thirds of the ditch contained several fills, indicating successive episodes of silting and slumping. A number of fragments of animal bone were recovered from the deposits within the enclosure ditch on the northern, south-western and eastern sides, and on first inspection appear to represent cattle and pig (boar). Some larger, more intact, pieces of vertebra were also noted along the northern side. On the eastern side, a small quantity of bone was found that exhibited evidence of butchery.
Located towards the north-west quadrant of the site, inside the enclosure, was a low, natural, clay-topped mound c. 15m in diameter. All but one of the internal features were cut into this. The mound area was covered by a layer of black, charcoal-rich, silty clay, containing c. 20% heat-shattered sandstone fragments.
This black spread also constituted the uppermost fills of the internal pits, post- and stake-holes, but its original extent is not known, as it had been truncated by ploughing.

There were ten subcircular or oval pits located within the enclosure ranging in size from 0.89m by 0.55m up to 1.83m by 1.58m and from 0.86m to 1.6m in diameter. Depths also varied between 0.12 and 0.45m. As to function, these pits may have been used mostly for storage or for refuse, although they were largely devoid of artefacts. One of a pair of intercutting, subcircular pits with a V-shaped profile did, however, produce a single, triangular-section, flint knife c. 90mm in length.

A number of post- and stake-holes were found in the south-east quadrant of the mound area. Many were discounted upon excavation as being stone-sockets, due to their very shallow nature and irregular shape.
The stake-holes were erratic, forming only a vague north-west/south-east alignment to the east of the pit complex and providing no obvious indication as to function. The post-holes, however, were loosely arranged in an east–west orientation, again with no clear form or function.

A notable exception was a cluster of four post-holes in a rectangular setting, which may indicate some form of timber structure or platform. In Britain, excarnation platforms, used for laying out the dead prior to cremation, have been identified in a number of segmented ring-ditch enclosures and perhaps this was the case at Knocks 1.

Twelve pieces of struck flint, along with 24 pieces of flint debitage, were recovered from the naturally occurring deposits that sealed the site, and were also washing out of the natural clay at the southern edge of the site. Most of the flakes were haphazard strikes on pebble flint, which created a useable edge without the need for further trimming. Three flint scrapers, and a possible fourth, as well as a flint core, were recovered from the area within the enclosure.

A hollow-based flint arrowhead was found on the natural clay surface at the southern edge of the site outside of the enclosure, and may be Neolithic in date. The tip of another arrowhead was found within the enclosure, again on the natural clay at the southern end, and appears to be of the same technology. The knife found in the pit from the mound area in the north-western part of the site may also be Neolithic in date.

Post-excavation research is ongoing and it is hoped to have positive radiocarbon dates for the site in the near future, which will assist in the overall interpretation. In Britain, similar sites tend to be closely associated with barrows and other funerary monuments, but so far no other Irish site of this size and nature has been identified, which means that the Knocks site may represent a somewhat unique site-type in Ireland.

21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda