House — Bronze Age in Danesfort

In rolling agricultural landscape on a gentle N-facing slope. Excavated in 2007 in advance of the N9/N10 Kilcullen to Waterford road improvement scheme (Licence no. E3456, Structure 3). A circle of 11 post-holes set at 1.5m intervals enclosing an area 9m by 9m. An internal circle of 4 post-holes yielded a piece of flint debitage and some pottery sherds. A porch feature protruded at SE and comprised 4 posts arranged in a square. An internal hearth was located off-centre and had 8 stake-holes clustered at E and W presumably to support items to be cooked or smoked. A deep, subrectangular pit was located inside the doorway. A small annexe was adjacent to the main structure just beyond the porch. Structure 3 was practically identical in morphology to Structure 1 (KK023-142---) c. 50 to the NE. Pottery from the packing fill of a post-hole near the hearth dates it to the middle/late Bronze Age. A penannular gully enclosed Structure 3 and an area about 40m in diameter on its W, S and SE sides and was probably to keep water away from the structure. A shallow slot-trench enclosed the structure at N and a number of pits were located in association with it. A large oval pit (diam. 6m) or cistern was located between the enclosing gully and the slot-trench. Further pits and post-holes were spread across the excavated area but their relationship with the structures is unknown. (Devine and Zimny 2009; Devine 2010, 239-40, no. 901) Compiled by: Mary Tunney Date of upload: 20 November 2013