2020:305 - Newtownmoyaghy, Meath

Excavation revealed the remains of two ring-ditches that lay c. 25m apart overlooking the Rye Water River. The most westerly ring-ditch, RMP ME049A003001-, was annular in plan with an external diameter of c. 15.8m. The ditch had a width between 1.2-2.45m and depth from 0.48-1.24m. The ditch enclosed a space of c. 110 sq.m. and no entranceway was identified. Charcoal (fraxinus) from a lens of silty material in a basal fill returned a date of 1620-1490 cal. BC (UBA 43429; 3278 +/- 26 BP) and places activity here in the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1700-1200 BC). This lens also contained 8g of highly fragmented burnt bone with one piece identified as possibly human. Only a single other fragment of bone from an upper fill was retrieved from this ring-ditch.
The other ring-ditch, RMP ME049A003002-, was penannular in plan with an external diameter of c. 12.2m. A gap in the ditch, 0.58m wide, lay in the eastern arc indicating an entrance to the monument. The ditch had a width between 0.66-1.66m and depth from 0.17-0.65m. It enclosed an area of c. 82 sq.m. A fragment of ash (fraxinus excelsior) charcoal from the upper fill returned a date of 2030-1820 cal. BC (UBA 43430; 3583 +/- 28 BP) and places activity here in the Early Bronze Age (c. 2200-1700 BC). No bone was retrieved from this ring-ditch.
The only artefacts retrieved from the excavation were two flints from the topsoil and a single retouched flake or broken blade from a fill of the westerly ring-ditch. No evidence for potential banks or mounds from either ring-ditch was identified. The fills were largely sterile coarse sands and gravels similar to the underlying subsoil. No other archaeological features were identified. Several plough-furrows truncated the ring-ditches as well as a larger field ditch along the northern edge of the easterly one.
A second cutting to the north proposed for excavation under this licence was not proceeded with at the time.

Unit 8 Beat Centre, Balbriggan, Co. Dublin