What is recorded here

Hearth in Portan burned during the Early Neolithic, perhaps before 3000 BC, when people first settled the wide Meath plains. Three small pits still hold charcoal and fire-red clay, marking a kitchen or workshop now buried under fields. The owner is gone, but the heat remains visible in the soil, proving that Portan was lived in long before written memory.

Archaeological monitoring (15E0577) by P. Duffy, D. Bayle and J. Whitaker of topsoil stripping over a large area (c. 92 ha.) conducted intermittently between Dec. 2015 and October 2018 uncovered 37 locations of potential archaeological importance (excavations.ie 2016:051). Each of these was further investigated by the same archaeologists under different licences. At Site 18, excavated (16E0196) by D. Bayley (excavations.ie 2016:542), three pits (dims 0.98m x 0.59m; D 0.1m: 0.69m x 0.55m; D 0.08m: 1.1m x 0.96m; D 0.38m) in a small area (dims 30m E-W; 10m E-W) were recorded. They had fills of silty clays with charcoal and evidence of fire-reddening of the bases so they were probably hearths. No artefacts were recovered but a piece of oak charcoal from one of the hearths provided a C14 date of 3315-2919 cal. BC (FTMC-HR36-17), placing it in the Early Neolithic. (Duffy et. al. 2021, 5-6) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 April, 2023 Duffy, P., Fairhead, S. & F. Fleeshouven 2021 Final Excavation Report for Sites 3-37, Clonee, Portan, Gunnocks, Co. Meath. Multiple licences, Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

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