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Habitation site in Townleyhall

Habitation site

What is recorded here

Under a low mound in County Louth, people repeated a temporary life: they drove stakes for a bending shelter, cut pits, and set aside a stone-lined bin before leaving the place to forget. It became a burial ground, meaning the dead returned to the living shape rather than the shape disappearing. The mound did not announce itself; it waited for removal. Forgetting is not the same as ending. What is forgotten may be remembering through another form.
The following description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 17 July 2007 Roughly oval area (int. dims. c. 7m E-W, c. 5m N-S) enclosed by a bank (Wth c. 2.5-3.5m) at SW, revealed in the course of an excavation by G.D. Liversage in 1958 (JRSAI 1960, 49-60). The excavation showed that an unprepossessing low mound (LH024-007002-) contained the settlement site, which after falling into disuse had been reused for burials (see LH024-007003-, LH024-007004-, LH024-007005-). The settlement consisted of numerous stake-holes indicating an irregular tent-like structure enclosed by the bank and ditch. Other internal features included a stone-lined 'storage-bin' and 3 small pits. The irregular distribution of stake-holes led the excavator to suggest that this was a recurrent seasonal site of a semi-permanent nature. Though no datable artifacts were revealed at this level, the entire site was sealed by a clay layer above which the Neolithic material provides a firm dating horizon for the habitation layer.

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What survives
Recorded monument

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