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Enclosure in Roestown (ratoath By.)

Enclosure

What is recorded here

Roestown 14 was a rectangular annexe, 25 metres long and 18 metres wide, joined to Roestown 1 and Roestown 12 during Phase 2 around the middle of the seventh century. Its ditches were cut and recut until the original shape became a tangle of older and newer lines. Oats, wheat and animal bones lay in those ditches, alongside a small copper-alloy cross within a ring, suggesting the place served both livelihood and belief.
In Area B Enclosure 14 consisted of a complex of ditches that formed a rectangular annexe (dims 25m E-W; 18m N-S) abutting the S side of Enclosure 1 and the W side of Enclosure 12 during Phase 2 around the middle of the seventh century. It is not known if it was contemporary with the original establishment of Enclosure 12, or the re-cut of its fosses. The development of the enclosure itself is complicated by the numerous re-cuts of its own ditches. No internal features can be associated with it, but cross-cutting plough marks suggest its use for agriculture at some point. A small quantity of animal bone was recovered from the ditches, together with small amounts of charred oats and wheat. Finds from the ditches include a copper-alloy mount in the form of a cross within a ring. The terminals and the crux are rectangular. (O’Hara 20090, 21; 2009a) True location: ITM (695687, 753773) See the attached images from O'Hara (2009, figs 7, 45, pl. 2) _2 Site plan; _4 Phase 2; _7 Aerial view; Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 April, 2022 O’Hara, R. 2009 M3 Clonee - North of Kells, Contract 2 Dunshaughlin - Navan. Final Report on the Archaeological Excavation of Roestown 2, Co. Meath. Licence: E003055. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services O’Hara, R. 2009a Early Medieval Settlement at Roestown 2. In Deevy, M. and Donald Murphy 2009 Places Along the Way, 57-82. NRA Scheme Monographs: 5.

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