County: Meath Site name: KNOCKS (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: A017022, E3044
Author: Stuart D. Elder, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ltd.
Site type: Ring-ditch
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 695577m, N 751941m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.508765, -6.559092
This site, consisting of a burnt-stone spread enclosed by a ditch, was located within Contract 1 (Dunboyne to Dunshaughlin) of the proposed M3 Clonee to north of Kells motorway and was identified during the environmental impact survey conducted by Valerie J. Keeley Ltd in 2001. It was subsequently confirmed by geophysical survey (Bartlett Clarke Consultancy, 2002) and tested in April 2004 by Tara O’Neill (Excavations 2004, No. 1279, 04E0478). Full resolution of the site took place between November 2005 and January 2006 and revealed a burnt-stone spread enclosed by a ditch (Excavations 2005, AD11).
The burnt-stone spread was removed to reveal a number of shallow pits or troughs and an alignment of post- and stake-holes. The enclosing ditch, although curvilinear, did not appear to have been formally laid out; however, an entrance was revealed at the north-east side. The ditch appears to have originally been segmented and at a later date ‘dug through’ to join the segments together. At least eleven former terminals were identified. Radiocarbon dates (920–800 BC and 970–820 BC) place this ditch in the late Bronze Age. Finds included animal bone from the ditch and a number of flint artefacts, including a hollow-based and a possible transverse arrowhead.
21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda
