What is recorded here

Four thousand years ago on a gentle north-facing slope in Clonymeath, people heated water in timber-lined troughs beside a large oval sump pit. They likely cooked food, cleaned cloth or prepared medicine before carrying the results home. The burnt mound still rises forty centimetres above the grass, preserving the shape of that busy place.

Situated on a gentle N-facing slope. Topsoil stripping (02E0194) in advance of a gas pipeline identified a spread of oxidised subsoil and burnt stone (1A/26/1), which extended outside the way-leave as a visible mound (H 0.4m) and was only partially excavated (02E0689). Excavation recorded two rectangular troughs (dims 2.2m E-W; 1.44m N-S; D 0.42m; 2.1m x 0.8m plus; D 0.4m) retained negative impressions of timber lining, and a large oval pit (dims 4.8m NW-SE; 4.05m NE-SW; max. D 0.6m) served the N trough as a sump. All the cut features were filled with a charcoal-rich, silty grey sand with sandstone gravel. A flint blade was recovered from the burnt mound material, and radiocarbon dates of 2285-2041 cal. BC and 2337-2138 cal. BC were obtained from the mound and the N trough respectively. (Byrne 2002, 5-8; 2004; Byrne 2007) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 8 March, 2018

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