What is recorded here

Gunnocks hides a steep-sided pit from c. 1570-1500 BC, filled with charcoal-rich clay, domestic waste, and Cordoned Urn pottery. The hole is small enough to throw away a meal or a broken jar, yet deep enough to keep both from the rain. Perhaps a household stood nearby, marking time by what it discarded rather than what it preserved.

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 32, excavation (17E0063) recorded a single steep-sided and flat-bottomed pit (dims 1.2m x 0.95m; D 1.05m) with seven layers of grey to black silty and sandy clays, some rich in charcoal but all containing some charcoal. There was also some undiagnostic burnt bone that is likely to be faunal rather than human. Nine sherds of pottery representing three vessels that are a domestic variant of the Cordoned Urn tradition were recovered as well as two flint scrapers and flint debitage. The pottery can be dated stylistically to c. 1570-1500 BC. There was also a relatively large collection of animal bone, probably from domestic waste, and cattle, pig, sheep/goat and deer were represented. (Duffy et. al. 2021, 19-20) 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 Multiple licences, Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy

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