2007:1286 - Collierstown 1, Meath

This site, located within Contract 2 (Dunshaughlin–Navan) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway, was identified during advance test-trenching by Linda Clarke in 2004 (Excavations 2004, No. 1210, 04E0422), which highlighted the existence of five extended inhumations (three stone-lined and two pit burials) as well as a possible cremation pit and four earthen mounds. Full resolution of the site occurred between September 2006 and spring 2007.
Collierstown 1 developed from an Iron Age ring-ditch possibly associated with a number of inhumations into a multiphase early medieval cemetery. In total 61 articulated human inhumations (24 female, nineteen male and eighteen unsexed, including three neonates) were identified in four potential groups. There were quantities of disarticulated human bone found in some graves, particularly towards the centre of the cemetery, where there was the greatest incidence of truncation by later graves. Burials were in simple pit graves or lined with stone or, to a lesser degree, wood. For a period, the cemetery was associated exclusively with adults, probably of a certain social rank, but later adopted the profile of a familial plot. The majority of burials were not associated with grave goods and were orientated west–east. The four groups of burials were contained within a sequence of successive ditches, which, along with more recent activity, provide for a six-phase sequence for the site.
These earliest interments were probably associated with the Iron Age ring-ditch (Phase 1). A second group of burials were placed in a ring around the earlier burials with a concentration to the south-east, perhaps in a conscious effort to avoid the earlier graves while staying within the Phase 1 ring-ditch. The majority of burials belong to the third group (Phase 2) were associated with a series of segmented ditches that can be dated to the 6th century ad, based on recovery of eastern Mediterranean pottery. Burials from this phase are more formally laid out than earlier burials. There was no indication of grave markers; however, there were three instances of double burials within a single plot suggesting graves were visible for a time after use. A new circular enclosure (Phase 3), c. 40m in diameter, replaced the earlier Phase 2 complex and may be associated with a later group of burials that cut the Phase 2 ditches. This group of burials marked a clear divergence from the exclusively adult demographic of previous phases, by including three neonates and one juvenile burial, which represented the first non-adult burials within the cemetery. The size of the Phase 3 enclosure was significantly larger than earlier phases but the potential capacity for the cemetery was never realised and the enclosure appears to have ceased functioning as a cemetery shortly after, probably around the 8th century ad, a time when the Church was beginning to exercise more control over burial in ancestral plots.
The Phase 3 enclosure was replaced and enlarged by the Phase 4 enclosure, which enclosed a total area of 80m north–south by 35m. This enclosure may have post-dated the cemetery, but was not associated with any obvious activity. In terms of properly demarcating the cemetery, the Phase 3 enclosure was more than adequate for such a purpose. It is possible that this phase of the site was completely removed from earlier activity and had assumed a more profane function, perhaps as an associated enclosure with the nearby ringforts at Ross (ME038–001), Baronstown (see No. 1263 above, A008–017, excavated by Stephen J. Linnane), or Collierstown (ME038–003). That no obvious entrance feature was noted into the Phase 3 or Phase 4 enclosures may indicate an entrance at the north of the site beyond the CPO, perhaps suggesting some association with the settlement at Baronstown.
The final phases of activity (Phases 5 and 6) encompassed the medieval–modern periods, whereby the site was ultimately levelled and truncated via ploughing and drainage. Finds from the site include flint objects, including a hollow-based arrowhead, imported early medieval Mediterranean pottery, Dublin-type ware (the medieval fabrics probably introduced through manuring and ploughing), a copper-alloy chain-ring fragment, a spiral-headed ring-pin, a bone toggle, bone comb side plate, and fragments of wooden objects, including a barrel-stave and stake.