What is recorded here

Fulacht fia in Pottlebane is a Neolithic cooking site dated to 3770-3647 Cal. BC, where heat-shattered stone and oak charcoal still fill an oval trough beside a canalized stream. The marshy ground would have steamed when water heated the rocks, filling the air with the smell of wet earth and burning wood. People may have gathered there to cook food, clean tools, or share stories beside the moving water, while the larger stone spread stretched beyond the road cut and kept part of the scene hidden.

Situated in a low-lying marshy area, with a SSW-NNE canalized section of a stream that flows N into the River Blackwater c. 40m to the E. Archaeological testing (04E1058) by G. McLoughlin (2005) at Testing Area 7 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological features that were partially excavated (E003179) by D. Gallagher in February 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1377) as Area A of Pottlebane 3. A spread of broken and burnt stone (dims 12m NW-SE; 8m NE-SW; D 0.03-0.34m) and a detached smaller spread (diam. 3m; D 0.25m) were excavated, but the larger spread extended outside the road-take at NE. An oval trough (dims 3.05m E-W; 1m N-S; D 0.35m) which was filled with a loose, brown/black silt with frequent heat-shattered stone and frequent inclusions of oak, hazel and maloideae charcoal. A sample of hazel charcoal from the trough produced a C14 date of 3770-3647 Cal. BC (Beta 247182) placing it firmly in the Neolithic. There were two small pits (dims 1.3m x 1m; D 0.28m: 0.8m x 0.58m; D 0.52m) c. 15m S of the trough filled with brown / grey silts or gravels with frequent charcoal inclusions, and a sample of hazel from one produced a C14 date of 404-207 cal. BC (Beta 247181). Two other pits could be associated with the fulacht fia. (Gallagher et al. 2008) See the attached plan from Gallagher et al. (2008, fig. 7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022

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