What is recorded here

Four Bronze Age enclosures, some nearly forty metres across, still mark the crest of a NE-facing slope in County Meath. They contained hearths, cremation pits and a Cordoned Urn, suggesting people returned repeatedly to burn, bury and remember within the ditch lines. A carbon date places part of the sequence before 1268 BC, long before roads, pipes or modern fields crossed the ground. The enclosures did not merely occupy the hill; they shaped the hill into a place of ritual memory.

Situated at the crest of a NE-facing slope, and a complex of ditch barrows (ME039-013; 014; 015) and other prehistoric features is c. 250m to the SW. Topsoil stripping (02E0194) in advance of a gas pipeline identified a group of enclosures (BGE: 1A/12/1) at one location that was subsequently partially excavated (02E0638). Four Bronze Age enclosures of two sizes (ext. diam. 17.25-19.5m: 37.75-38.85m) were recorded, sometimes with re-cut ditches. Two hearths, a cremation burial, burnt stone material and three cremation pits were recovered in the interiors or more frequently from the ditches together with fragments of at least four vessels, at least one of which is a Cordoned Urn, and animal bones from the ditches. A sample from the smallest enclosure produced a C14 date of 1427-1268 cal. BC. (Byrne 2004; Byrne 2007) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload; 8 March, 2018

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