What is recorded here

A narrow alder trough sat within a huge mound of heat-shattered stone on a gentle slope in County Meath, where people threw hot rocks into water around 2000 BC. They abandoned the site when floodwater buried the trench in yellow sand, yet they returned later to heat stones above the drowned layer. The road builders cut through the western edge, exposing the dark clay and charcoal that recorded human patience against changing water.

Situated on a gentle S-facing slope, with a small pond just to the N that is the source of a small canalised stream that extends W and then turns S. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1055) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 4 of Contract 5 in advance of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1223) identified a spread of burnt mound material at the NE edge of the road-take that was partially excavated (E003173) by D. Gallaher between October 2006 and January 2007 as Drumbaragh 3 (excavations.ie 2007:1307). A large mound (dims 19.2m x 11.25m; D 1.34m) of black silty clay with heat-shattered stone and charcoal inclusions was cut NW-SE by the boundary of the road-take and much of the monument survives to the NE. A yellow/brown sand over a layer of peat within the mound represents a period of flooding and abandonment. Alder charcoal from the base of the mound provided a C14 date of 2016-1756 cal. BC (Beta 247166). The mound sealed a rectangular trough (dims 2.2m x 1.1m; D c. 0.1m) with an alder plank in its base. Hazel charcoal from the bottom of the trough yielded a C14 date of 2035-1775 cal. BC (Beta 247168). This was covered by a flood level of brown silty sand but a layer of black silty clay with heat-shattered stone above this provide a C14 date of 1886-1666 cal. BC (Beta 247167) from a sample of ash charcoal. There was a detached spread (dims 3.5m x 3.4m; T 0.02-0.08) of burnt stone outside the main mound to the NW, and burnt mound material filled hollows in the subsoil. (Gallagher at al. 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022

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