2020:410 - Laughanstown, Dublin

Three areas of archaeological potential (AA1, AA2 and AA4) were excavated having previously been identified during archaeological testing under the same licence in June 2019 by Muireann Ní Cheallacháin. All three lie 300m to the north-east of Tully Church.
Archaeological investigation of the deposits originally identified during testing revealed them to be a single larger spread of material overlying looser silty clay which filled in a channel created some time the past by a tree root system. A single small piece of green-glazed medieval pottery was recovered from this area. While it is possible the deposits originally derived from features related to the prehistoric pits noted elsewhere in AA1 (and discussed below), there were no finds of artefactual material such as pottery that was ubiquitous in the pits and associated deposits.
The main archaeological features noted on site were the group of pits up to 2.2m in diameter and 2.2m in depth. The pits formed a V-shape with a glacial erratic slab (C51) present at the top of one wing of the ‘V’ which seemed to have been deliberately included within the original setting. A preliminary analysis suggests that some, if not all, of the pits had originally contained upright posts. The post-pipe or deepest point of pits C19, C28 and C30 form one wing of the ‘V’, while the post-pipe of C11 and centre points of C35 and C36 form the second wing.
The stratigraphic relationships between the various pits also suggest that, apart from C11, the others had been opened and backfilled in an anti-clockwise sequence starting with C19, the closest to C51. The pits (including C11) also appear to get deeper as they move anti-clockwise. If there is a relationship between pit depth and the height of any associated upright, this might suggest that they rose in height from the upright closest to the granite slab, C51, along one wing of the ‘V’ and continued to increase in height along the second wing. However, that might be too simplistic an interpretation given the evidence for a possible horizontal element between C19 and C28, the use of heavy post-packing in C30 and that uprights could be connected above ground in a way that would not leave any archaeological expression. Thus any installation of interconnected upright timbers might provide stability in its own right and might require there to be no meaningful relationship between the subsurface features and the height or form of the original installation beyond marking the original position of some vertical elements.
The majority of finds from AA1 were ceramic, mainly coarse pottery, with over a 100 sherds and small fragments recovered. Many sherds appear to have had external decoration. The assemblage will require further analysis but initially it appears to be Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age in date. Few rim sherds are present, but base-angle sherds indicate that some vessels were flat-bottomed, while some may have had applied strips. Quite a few sherds are decorated with incised parallel lines and some have deeply incised V-shaped decoration. Further analysis may identify the assemblage as containing Grooved Ware or Beaker forms. The densest concentration of ceramics came from C15, located just to the south of the V of pits. It produced twenty-three sherds and small fragments of pottery.
Two hammerstones were identified among the coarse stone on site, with a quantity of struck flint and quartz, although no obvious tool forms are represented.
A single possible fragment of burnt bone was recovered from the base of pit C11.
Burnt mound-type deposits were found in Pit C26, a shallow pit with a capacity of around 20 litres. Around 20% of the fill of C26 was burnt stone, some showing clear evidence of having been heated and immersed in water, possibly in pit C26 or some form of vessel within C26. There were no finds or other burnt mound type deposits present in AA1. A nearby slot trench also provided no dateable material (other than charcoal) and showed evidence of animal disturbance.
A small number of sherds of green glazed pottery and Leinster Cooking Ware were recovered from topsoil contexts at AA1 reflecting the longer-term use of the landscape (and proximity of Tully Church).

No substantial archaeological remains were present in AA2.

The remnants of deposits of burnt stone (90% granite with some sandstone, shale and limestone) and charcoal-rich clay were present over an area measuring 20m by 20m at AA4 indicating former use of the site as a burnt mound. These were recorded, where present, and a number of truncated features were noted, including two pits. One (C110) was heavily truncated but contained animal bone, hazelnuts and other organic material. The other was funnel-shaped, measuring 1.7m in diameter and 0.3m deep (C114) and deepened by a further pit (C119) 0.5m across an area of 0.7m. It wasn't possible to differentiate the fill of C114 and C119 suggesting the funnel-shape may have been intentional.

For Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd