Pit in Pottlebane

Situated on a slight rise in the valley of the River Blackwater, with a WNW-ESE section of the stream c. 400m to the N. Archaeological testing (04E1058) by G. McLoughlin (2005) at Testing Area 7 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological features in a fairly limited area (dims c. 16m N-S; c. 8m E-W) that were completely excavated (E003180) by S. Rathbone in February 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1376) as Pottlebane 2. A group of four pits (dims 0.34m; D 0.09m to 1.61m x 0.58-0.82m; D 0.26-0.38m) had each a single fill of silty or sandy clays with frequent stone inclusions and flecks of charcoal. The smallest pit had a small quantity of the cremated remains of an adolescent. Another had charred grain that produced a C14 date of 991-1157 cal. AD (Beta 247189), but no artefacts were recovered from any of the pits. (Rathbone 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022