Excavation

Situated on a fairly level landscape. Archaeological testing (04E0917) by J. Roynane (2005) at Testing Area 10 of Contract 4 of the M3 motorway identified (excavations.ie 2004:1270) archaeological material on the route of the E link road to Kells that was excavated (E003144) in February and March 2007 by Y. Whitty (2011) as Kilmainham 3 (excavations.ie 2007:1338) when an area of 5176 square meters was opened and five structures were recorded. Two structures that were probably houses and a timber circle were associated with Grooved ware. Nearby, portion of an Early Bronze Age ring-ditch was excavated, and about 50m S of the timber circle were five postholes and some pits of an Early Neolithic date. There were five postholes and three pits in a confined area (dims c. 8m E-W; c. 5m N-S). No pattern was clearly discernible, except that three of the posts could have formed the corners of a small four-post structure (dims c. 3m NE-SW; c. 2m NW-SE), and two of the pits and another posthole are within the area. The fifth posthole and another pit were 5m to the W. Some burnt bone and charcoal derived from various woods were present, but there were no cereals. A fragment of a chert arrowhead was recovered from one posthole that also provided a C14 date of 3702-3638) cal. BC (UBA 12080) from a hazelnut shell. The arrowhead was probably lozenge-shaped and had not been produced on site as there was no debitage. (Whitty 2011, 5-7) See the attached plans from Whitty (2011, figs 5, 6) ME017-088001-_1 Site plan; ME017-088001-_2 Plan; Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 22 March 2022