What is recorded here

Enclosure 4 in Roestown is a rectangular medieval yard, thirteen by ten metres, cut with a V-shaped ditch and buried inside an older boundary. It has no entrance, which suggests it was made for exclusion rather than invitation. A spearhead, horse bone, and Dublin pottery emerged from its silt, while a nearby pit held charred seeds, bone pins, and a possible saddle quern. The place may have been a small working farm, a temporary stronghold, or a forgotten household, but its shape and buried tools point to real human life rather than empty ritual.

In Area A Enclosure 4, a rectangular area (int. dims 13m NE-SW; 10m NW-SE) defined by a V-shaped ditch (Wth c. 1.6m; D 0.6m), was placed centrally within Enclosure 3 in the high medieval period (Phase 5), suggesting that the outline of Enclosure 3 might still have been visible. This enclosure has no identifiable entrance, but the four fills of the ditch indicate that a short occupation was followed by a lengthy period of silting. The primary deposit of silt produced a spearhead and a sherd of Dublin ware, and a horse bone provided a C14 date of 1450-1635 cal. AD (BETA 219004). Within the enclosure a pit (dims 2.45m x 2.3m; D 0.48m), perhaps the only survivor of many, produced a lot of animal bone together with charcoal and charred seeds. It also contained two complete bone pins, glazed pottery, and an iron blade fragment. Also within this deposit were a hone stone, a retouched flint object and what might be a saddle quern. (O’Hara 2009, 15-16; 2009a) True location: ITM (695766, 753917) See the attached plans from O'Hara (2009, figs 9, 48) _2 Site plan; _6 Phase 5 Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 25 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 Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services O’Hara, R. 2009a Early Medieval Settlement at Roestown 2.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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