County: Meath Site name: Johnstown Road, Johnstown, Enfield
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 21E0168
Author: Linda Clarke, Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit
Site type: Burnt stone spread
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 678430m, N 741130m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.414460, -6.820233
Testing took place on the site on the 31 March – 1 April 2021 using a 14-tonne tracked excavator. A total of 10 test trenches were excavated. Each trench measured 1.8m in width; in total, 883 linear meters were excavated, and an area measuring 15m by 12m was opened. In general, the trenches revealed sod and topsoil which measured 0.3–0.4m. The topsoil lay above the natural which consisted of soft light, yellow-brown sandy clay with infrequent small-rounded stones that in places changed to a mottled yellow and orangey-brown sandy clay with occasional stones.
Several agricultural furrows and land drains were seen intermittently within the test trenches. An area measuring 15m by 12m was opened as an extension to Test Trench 8 where a burnt stone spread C3 (ITM 678390, 741120) was exposed. Subsequently, the area stripped was extended to 20m by 20m and was opened around burnt stone spread, the only archaeological feature identified in the course of test trenching. The mound was subsequently excavated under extension of the licence between May and June 2021.
The spread (C3) was roughly oval-shaped and measured c. 11.5m north-south by 9.6m and had a depth of c.0.4m. Following the removal of C3, two troughs (C4, C6) and three pits (C12, C14, C16) were exposed, a stake-hole (C19) was uncovered following the removal of C13, the fill of pit C12. All features were excavated. In addition two features, C10 and C11, were investigated and found to represent natural depressions filled by burnt mound material C3. Primary trough C4 measured 1.7m by 1.29m and was 0.34m deep. Trough C4 was recut by C6, a smaller timber-lined trough measuring 1.28m by 0.96m and 0.32m in depth.
Charcoal retrieved from an Environmental Sample (Sample 10) was sent for Radiocarbon dating to International Chemical Analysis Inc. (ICA). Corylus/hazel charcoal (0.03g) from C5, a fill of primary trough C4, returned a date of 3770 +/- 40BP giving a 2-sigma calibrated date range of BC 2340-2030 (ICA ID. 14C-6021), placing the feature in the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age.
Unit 21, Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co Louth
