What is recorded here

Thirty-eight hectares of level Meath soil hid charcoal pits and burnt stones that men kept digging, measuring and forgetting. Campbell marked two pits and a ditch in 1998, O Drisceoil found six crowded places by 2001, and Sweetman recovered thirty-eight flint pieces and six pottery shards in 2012. The ditches remained shallow, empty and probably modern, while the small pits held enough broken life to prove that people had played, cooked or discarded something there.

Situated on a fairly level landscape. Archaeological testing (95E0232) by K. Campbell (1998, 3-4) identified two pits and an E-W ditch that were set aside for resolution (excavations.ie 1995:234) as Area 1. Archaeological monitoring (98E0352) of topsoil stripping over an area of about 38 hectares (c. 95 acres) by C. Ó Drisceoil (2001, 1) identified six areas of potential archaeological importance consisting largely of pits filled with charcoal and burnt stones (excavations.ie 1998:526). In Area 1 that had already been noted by Campbell, sixteen circular pits (diam. c. 0.5m) and two ditches were found, some of which contained cremated bone, charcoal-rich soils and burnt stone but the features were not excavated. When the extensive area (dims c. 125m x c. 60m) was re-examined (12E0311) by P. D. Sweetman (2012, 2-9) two parallel ditches (Wth 0.4m; D 0.1m) c. 1.7m apart were recorded together with a third (max. Wth 0.57m; D 0.3m) c. 50m to the SW. No artefacts were recovered but they are thought to be modern. A pit (diam. 0.7m; D 0.3m) produced 38 pieces of flint and two sherds of pottery while a second pit (dims 0.45m x 0.35m; D 0.3m) that produced 5 waste flints and four sherds of pottery was 1.3m to the SW. These are the only features from the earlier monitoring to have survived. Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 30 March 2023 Campbell, K. 1998 Archaeological Appraisal of Proposed Borrow Areas at Simonstown and Randalstown, Co. Meath. Licence: 95E0232. Unpublished report, Archaeological Consultancy Services Ó Drisceoil, C. 1998 Archaeological Test-excavations at Simonstown, Co. Meath. Licence: 98E0352. Unpublished Interim Report, Archaeological Consultancy Services Sweetman, P. D. 2012 Report on Archaeological Assessment, Monitoring and Excavation at Simonstown, County Meath, August-September 2012. Licence: 12E0311. Unpublished report, Author

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