What is recorded here

Excavation at Derver 1 revealed a small hearth, several pits and Beaker pottery on a steep slope above the River Blackwater. The discovery emerged during motorway testing, lifting a fleeting human presence from soil that had hidden it for millennia. The lamb skeleton in one hollow remains uncertain, perhaps recent, while the charcoal-flecked pits and red hearth base point to older fire and occupation.

Located on a steep S-facing slope of the River Blackwater, with a WNW-ESE section of the stream c. 500m to the S. Archaeological testing (04E1060) by D. Bayley (2005) at Testing Area 9 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological features in a limited area (dims c. 20m x c. 12m) that were completely excavated (E003187) by S. Rathbone in January 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1294) as Derver 1. It consisted of a hearth (dims 0.47m x 0.4m; T 0.12m) with a fire-reddened base, two small pits (dims 0.34m; x 0.22m; D 0.14m: 0.42m x 0.4m; D 0.08m) and a larger pit (dims 2.65m x 1.18m; D 0.38m) with largely sterile fills that had some charcoal flecking. A small cut (dims 0.61m x 0.48m; D 0.15m) produced 33 fragments of Beaker pottery dating to the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, 19 of which came from the same vessel, but no radiocarbon date was obtainable. There were also two shallow hollows, one of which (diam. 0.7m; D 0.12m) contained the skeleton of a lamb and may be recent. (Rathbone and Ginn 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 3 March 2022

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