Pit in Calliaghstown (kells Upper By.)

Located in a slight basin on a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1052) by G. Mcloughlin (2005) at Testing Area 1 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1194) identified archaeological features that were fully resolved (E003163) by S. Reilly in November 2006 as Calliaghstown 3. It consists of two pits c. 12m apart. The W pit is subrectangular (dims 2.2m N-S; 1.16m E-W; D 0.6m) and contained four fills of brown/grey sandy clays with varying amounts of stone and charcoal inclusions. It is interpreted as a rubbish pit, and the primary fill produced a C14 date of 430-617 cal. AD (Beta 247134) from a sample of cherry charcoal. A wide variety of wild species and cultivated cereals were amongst the charred remains in this layer as well as some cremated bone. The E pit was more irregular in form (dims 3.18m N-S; 2.4m E-W; D 0.16m) and had a single fill of brown/grey clay with frequent stones and charcoal flecks. No artefacts were recovered from either pit. (Reilly and Ginn 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022