County: Meath Site name: KENNASTOWN (3)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A023/003, E3095
Author: Ken Wiggins, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Burnt mound
Period/Dating: Undetermined
ITM: E 687548m, N 764536m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.623321, -6.676574
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. 1267, 04E0575). Full resolution occurred in November 2006. The site comprised two areas of archaeological interest. A number of shallow burnt deposits were located in the northern half of the site and a few pit features were located at the southern end. The burnt deposits were distributed over an area measuring c. 15m (east–west) by 13m. The material comprised charcoal-enriched clay and burnt-stone fragments mostly contained by natural hollows in the subsoil. In the southern part of the site, two features were cut by a larger pit. One of the two features was sub-oval in plan (1.02m by 0.68m and 0.14m deep). The fill was grey/brown sandy clay containing burnt stone and charcoal. The other feature was subrectangular in plan (0.62m by 0.28m and 0.4m deep). The lower fill was light-brown clayey silt containing charcoal; the upper fill was dark-brown/black sandy clay with burnt-stone fragments and charcoal. Both features were truncated by a larger pit (2.23m by 2.26m and 0.39m deep) containing two layers of grey silty clay separated by a middle layer of dark-grey sandy clay.
The site provides limited evidence for the use of hot-stone technology, but with no remains of any large boiling pit or trough. This suggests that water was boiled in portable containers, leaving waste material of burnt-stone fragments and charcoal-enriched clay as scattered patches on the surface of the subsoil.
21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda
