2006:1586 - KENNASTOWN (1), Meath

This site was located within Contract 3 (Navan bypass) of the proposed M3 Clonee to north of Kells motorway scheme and was identified during advance testing by Aidan O’Connell in April 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1266, 04E0574). Full resolution occurred intermittently between February and November 2006. Kennastown 1 comprised ten areas (Areas 1–10) of archaeological material located across three adjoining poorly drained pasture fields, sloping north–south from c. 55m OD to c. 51.5m OD. Areas 1–3 were located in the northern field of the site, Areas 4–7, 9 and 10 in the middle field and Area 8 at the north-east corner of the southern field. The archaeology of Kennastown 1 spanned an overall area of c. 230m (north–south) by 150m.

Areas 1 and 2 were enlarged at an early stage in the excavation to form a single combined area. Testing revealed a number of pits and linear features containing charcoal-enriched clay and burnt-stone fragments. Excavation defined a number of large well-like pits grouped around an immense central pit (11.5m east–west by 8m by 1.6m deep). It was accessed via a ramp on the eastern side. The most substantial deposit in the pit was a layer of peat, up to 0.6m deep. This material was sealed by deposits of silty clay containing fragments of burnt stone. No artefacts were found in the pit, but there were a few animal bones. Four large pits containing silty clay fills were located adjacent to it; two of these also contained the worked ends of several roundwood stakes.

A group of intersecting features was located 16m south-east of the central pit. This included the remains of three large sequential pits. The earliest of these was 2.07m long by 0.9m and 0.45m deep and was filled with peat. The feature was heavily truncated by the two later pits (2m by 1.7m by 1.06m and 2.5m by 1.4m by 1.29m), one of which contained some animal bone.

The south-east sequence of pits, one replacing the other, was linked to the large central peat-filled pit by a segmented linear feature with an overall length of c. 15.3m. The three segments of the feature were filled with deposits containing burnt-stone fragments and charcoal. A separate linear feature, aligned north–south, extended from the north towards the south-east pit area. To the west of this feature was another large pit, containing charcoal-enriched clay and burnt-stone fragments. Another linear feature (24.3m by up to 0.64m by 0.3m) followed the north–south gradient of the field to the south of the superimposed pits. The fill at the northern limit contained a small amount of heat-shattered stone but otherwise consisted of silty clay deposits with no inclusions. A circular pit (1.24m diameter by 0.24m deep) was located near the southern limit of this linear feature. The fill was silty clay with a high concentration of burnt sandstone.

Area 3, along the southern limit of the northern field, consisted of four deposits of charcoal-enriched clay. Area 4, located in the middle field, comprised a limited number of spreads and deposits of black charcoal-enriched clay and burnt-stone fragments; the archaeological material was confined to an area measuring roughly 12m (north–south) by 7m. Area 5, to the north-west of Area 4, was considerably more substantial. This comprised a large burnt spread, below which were two troughs and two pairs of post-holes. The spread, consisting of friable dark-brown/black sandy silt containing fragments of burnt sandstone and charcoal, was roughly circular in plan and measured 13.75m (east–west) by 13m and up to 0.17m deep. Area 6, located west of Area 5, contained only a single deposit of dark-grey silty clay with burnt sandstone fragments, measuring 1.28m by 0.56m and 0.13m deep.

Areas 7, 9 and 10 were each located along the northern boundary of the middle field. Area 7 had overall dimensions of c. 13m (east–west) by c. 12m. There were three phases of activity in this area of the site. The first phase is represented by a linear cut measuring 5.7m (north-west/south-east) by 1.15m and 0.2m deep. The fill was grey/brown sandy silt. The second phase relates to evidence for the use of hot-stone technology and comprised three pits and a number of deposits. One of the pits was a subrectangular cut (1.9m by 1.6m and 0.25m deep). The fill contained fragments of burnt sandstone. The edge was cut by eighteen stake-holes arranged in clusters of four or five at the rounded corners of the pit. The third phase relates to the partial enclosure of a limited space along the northern edge of the field by means of an L-shaped ditch. The structure was subsequently reconstructed on a slightly larger scale. The initial ditch was c. 9m long by 0.75m wide and 0.28m deep. The replacement ditch was 11.3m long by 1.65m and 0.3m deep. The fill was sandy clay containing numerous finds of broadly 19th-century date.

Area 9 was located to the north-east of Area 5. The site comprised just one cut, a curvilinear slot-trench forming a rounded corner to the south-east. The overall length of the feature was 8.5m by 0.43m and up to 0.15m deep. The fill was mid-grey clayey silt, which contained no finds. Area 10 was also located along the northern boundary of the second field, to the east of Area 9. The site contained just one feature, an irregular stony surface established directly on the subsoil, sloping gently north–south and measuring 9.8m (north–south) by 6.8m and 0.06–0.08m deep. The northern limit of the surface was cut by the edge of the field boundary ditch. There were no finds.

Area 8 was located at the north-east corner of the southern field, c. 75m south of Area 4. The site comprised a number of limited deposits of burnt material, contained by irregular hollows in the surface of the subsoil, two shallow possible cuts and one very large pit. The burnt deposits were confined to an area measuring c. 8m (north–south) by c. 10.5m. One of the deposits was truncated by the edge of a large pit (3.5m north-east/south-west by 2.05m and 1.5m deep). The sides were tapered in the top half of the cut and vertical in the lower half. The feature was filled with peat, which contained many large and well-preserved tree roots and other plant remains, as well as small amounts of burnt sandstone. The only find came from the bottom of the pit, which was the worked end of a roundwood post, measuring 0.73m long and with a diameter of 0.19m. The intact end was cut to a wedge-shaped point, with several perfectly preserved tool-marks made by a metal axe; the other end was charred.

The organised arrangement of pits and linear features in Areas 1 and 2, with much related evidence for the use of hot-stone technology, flags this part of the site as the most significant of the many discrete areas of Kennastown 1. The archaeological remains appear to represent evidence for activity of unusual scale and complexity, not altogether consistent with the typical ‘burnt mound’ site, conventionally interpreted as a cooking place. The blackened circular spread excavated in Area 5 is much more representative of a levelled burnt mound. A similar spread of charcoal-enriched clay and heat-shattered stones was absent from Areas 1 and 2, yet the majority of the archaeological features contained material that included varying percentages of burnt sandstone fragments.

In general terms, the preliminary interpretation of the Areas 1 and 2 complex runs as follows: the four well-like pits were presumably dug to access ground-water; the massive pit about which the wells were positioned was dug to generate clay and stone for use off-site and later to contain waste vegetable matter, which accounts for the peat forming much of the fill of the feature. The three pits located to the south-east, essentially a single feature that was cut and filled three times, appear to have been dug to contain or store a solution of some type; a similar solution, or perhaps simply water, was channelled into this pit area from the sloping linear feature from the north, and from the segmented linear feature, commencing near the edge of the central pit to the west; overflow was drawn away downslope to the south via another linear feature; hot water was produced in other features on the site by means of stones heated in a fire. For the present, the reasons for the site’s creation and the produce generated by activity in and around this set of interrelated features remain unknown.

The use of hot-stone technology on a more limited scale or in a comparatively conventional fashion is evidenced by the findings in Areas 3–8 of the site. Two features in particular stand out. One of these is the principal pit in Area 7. The four clusters of stake-holes associated with it must represent evidence for some type of tent-like frame erected over the pit, suggesting that something was draped or stretched across the frame and treated with or subjected to the hot water in the pit, or the steam rising from it. The other noteworthy feature is the peat-filled pit from Area 8. The peat fill establishes a link to several of the pits in Areas 1 and 2, as they all must have been filled with large volumes of vegetable matter, and not merely backfilled with the silty clay and stones upcast when they were dug out. Furthermore, the placing at the bottom of the pit of the charred stump of a large structural post, clearly derived from a substantial building that existed somewhere in the vicinity, must be seen as a deliberate action. This too is paralleled in the inclusion of a number of much smaller broken-off worked stakes in two of the Areas 1 and 2 pits, hinting at a possible symbolic, if not ritual, dimension to the tantalising glimpses of life and work in prehistoric times at Kennastown 1.

Three of the areas along the northern side of the middle field, Areas 7, 9 and 10, each contained evidence for possible small animal enclosures or pens. The features in question contrast strongly in type. The finds contained in the fill of the recut L-shaped ditch appear to securely date the Area 7 structure to the 19th century. It is possible that earth upcast from the ditch was deposited within the enclosed area and a palisade constructed on top; this pen would have incorporated the field boundary itself at its northern side and must have been secured by a gate along the open western side. While the Area 9 slot-trench is quite different from the Area 7 ditches, the function may have been the same – the creation of an animal pen utilising the field boundary as one side and accessed from the west. There was no evidence regarding what the slot-trench contained before it silted up, possibly stonework later entirely removed for reuse elsewhere. The Area 10 stony surface further west along the northern limit of the field was initially thought to be the remains of a cobblestone yard belonging to a farmhouse or some other agricultural buildings, but there was no evidence, in the form of wall footings and so forth, for structures of any kind. The stoned area may have been the flooring of yet another kind of pen for farm animals, although there were no edge or corner features, such as post-holes or slot-trenches, indicating where the original limits were and how the sides were constructed.

21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda