What is recorded here

Chapelbride 2 is an oval pit cut four tenths of a metre into a north-facing slope in County Meath, where black silty clay and oak charcoal still mark the bottom. A single Neolithic pottery sherd and a charcoal date stretching back toward 4221 BC suggest people lived nearby long before roads or records. The pit may have held waste, water or memory; its small size and depth keep the purpose uncertain. What is clear is that human hands shaped the earth there, and the slope has preserved the shape of their labour.

Situated on a N-facing slope. Archaeological centre-line testing (04E1054) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 3 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway (excavations.ie 2004:1223) identified archaeological material that was fully resolved (E003171) by E. Danaher in October 2006 as Chapelbride 2 (excavations.ie 2006:1528). An oval pit (dims 1.34m x 0.86m; D 0.4m) from which a sherd of Neolithic pottery was recovered had a layer of black silty clay with frequent stones and oak charcoal beneath a brown silty clay with less stones and charcoal. A sample of oak charcoal from the basal layer returned a C14 date of 4221-3813 cal. BC (Beta 241162) placing it in the early Neolithic, although the old wood factor could mean a somewhat later date. (Danaher and Ginn 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022

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