What is recorded here

Hot breath and clinking metal once filled the air beside the rath, where a round-bottomed furnace sat half-hidden in the ditch. A quernstone fragment marked the wind-break, and two possible anvil stones still lie near the pit. The smith worked with the ditch open to the west, pulling air into the fire and shaping hot metal for the living world above.

A single instance of metal-working was evident in a furnace pit cut into the upper fill of the re-cut E annexe ditch at a point just SE of the rath. Rake-out to the W indicates that the ditch was at least partially open when it was in operation. The shape of the furnace was uncertain as it had been truncated by a post-medieval ditch to the E and by a modern services trench to the W but it was round-bottomed and oriented E-W. A line of stones to the N which included a quernstone fragment was probably a wind-break. A fragment of a crucible and two possible anvil stones were recovered from the vicinity. Small quantities of slag were found in other ditch contexts. (McGlade 2017, vol. 1, 21-22; 96-7) See the attached plan for location from McGlade (2017, vol. 1, P 29) _01 location: Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 19 April, 2023 McGlade, S. 2017 Preliminary Excavation Report, Site D, Alexander Reid, Navan. Licence: 16E0449. Unpublished report, 2 vols Archaeology Plan

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