2019:457 - Ballymanaggin, Gallanstown and Yellowmeadows, Dublin

Twelve areas of archaeological potential were identified during monitoring (Areas 1–12). Excavation proved seven of these to contain remains of archaeological significance (1, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11). These included an annular ditch of probable prehistoric date (Area 1); a tree throw which may have been used by humans in antiquity (Area 6); two burnt spreads of likely Bronze Age date (Areas 7 and 8); a late medieval/early post-medieval field system (Areas 7 and 8); a pair of late prehistoric or early medieval metalworking furnace bases (Area 9); and two pits of likely archaeological significance with evidence of in situ burning (Areas 10 and 11).
The annular ditch in Area 1 was likely a ring-ditch, a form of ritual or burial monument, and most probably of later prehistoric date. It was between 0.52m and 0.92m wide, 0.15m and 0.4m deep and had steep to moderately sloping sides that broke gradually to a base that varied from concave to V-shaped in profile and contained three fills. Some burnt bone, potentially token cremation deposits, was recovered from its fills.
The tree throw in Area 6 was 1.82m long, 1.72m wide, 0.78m deep, had moderately sloping sides that broke gradually to a concave base and contained six fills. Charcoal and occasional burnt stone in some of those deposits suggests it was used by humans in antiquity. The spread (C725) comprised a 0.16m deep layer comprising a mixture of dark-blackish grey charcoal-rich silt and medium sized heat-shattered stones. It covered an irregularly shaped area c.15.5m north-east/south-west by 13m.

The burnt spreads in Areas 7 and 8 were accompanied by pits which are likely to have served as troughs for cooking with boiling water or steam and other pits for accessing the water table or holding water. In Area 7, there were also two gullies that seem designed to take overflows of water from the troughs to adjacent pits. The dates and location of these sites will make an important addition to the wider corpus of burnt mounds but none of this is particularly unusual. However, two large pits found in Area 7 are exceptional. One, which contained several pieces of worked wood and deer antler, may have served as a trap, and a cow skull discovered in its upper fills may have been placed there as a votive offering. It was 6.6m long, 5.5m wide, orientated south-west to north-east and was stepped midway along its length, from a relatively flat-based south-western end, c.0.8m deep, to a much deeper and wider bowl-shaped north-eastern end, c.1.9m deep. The partially articulated remains of a cow without a skull in the second large pit may be associated, and the sequence of fills overlying it suggests a series of structured depositions rarely identified in the Irish archaeological record. It was oval in plan, 1.47m long, 1.38m wide, 1.12m deep and had a bell-shaped profile, with undercut north-west and south-east sides.

The pair of metalworking furnace bases in Area 9 were 0.34m and 0.45m in diameter and 0.08m and 0.16m deep. Both contained slag presumably from iron smelting or smithing. They are most likely to date to the Iron Age or early medieval period and will form an important addition to our knowledge of such activity in County Dublin.
The field system in Areas 7 and 8 is likely to be a strip holding and is typical of how Anglo-Irish agriculture was organised in the Middle Ages; the layout of these is reputed to have survived from the Middle Ages and are historically believed to have lasted up until the second half of the eighteenth century in Clondalkin. It contained artefacts ranging from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century, potentially offering support for this.

10 McEoin Pk, Longford, Co. Longford