Excavation

Situated in a gently undulating landscape. Archaeological testing (04E0925) by J. Roynane (2005) at Testing Area 2 of Contract 4 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological material (excavations.ie 2004:1245) that was excavated (E003121) by A. Kelly (2010) as Grange 5 in November 2006 (excavations.ie 2007:1324) when just over 850 square metres were opened. Five pits, two possible posthloles and two curving ditches were recorded. Three pits (dims 0.82m x 0.52m; D 0.27m to 1.31m x 1.07m; D 0.13m) had similar fills of charcoal-rich silts, and a fragment of ash charcoal from one provided a C14 date of 2335-2148 cal. BC (UBA 11100), placing them in the Early Bronze Age. Two pits (dims 1m x 0.84m; D 0.12m: 0.82m x 0.76m; D 0.32m) with fire-reddened bases and fills of red and yellow burnt clays with heat-shattered stones and charcoal were 4m apart and were probably corn-drying kilns. Barley and oats were dominant in the environmental samples from these and a barley grain returned a C14 date of 424-541 cal. AD (UBA 11099) from one of them. A ditch (L 35.5m plus; Wth 0.7m; D 0.35m) ran N-S, parallel with a mapped field bank c. 5m to the E and curved W across the S part of the excavated area before petering out. Another ditch (L 11.75m plus; Wth 0.9m; D 0.38m) met it on the curve and extended away to the SE. Each ditch had a single layer of silty clay, but the only artefact recovered was a flint flake, undoubtedly redeposited, and the ditches remain undated. (Kelly 2010, 5-8) See the attached site plan from Kelly (2010, fig. 5) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 25 March 2022