Ring-ditch in Dunshaughlin

Located on a slight NW-SE ridge. A remote sensing survey (18R0012) identified numerous potential archaeological features (Nicholls 2018), and archaeological testing (18E0495) by L. Kavanagh (2018) confirmed the presence of three isolated pits, two burnt mounds together with a ring-ditch and nearby features (excavations.ie 2018:226). The features were subsequently excavated by M. Piera (2020) under the same licence (excavations.ie 2019:735). The ring-ditch is a subcircular area (int. diam. 8m N-S; 7.4 E-W) defined by a wide ditch (Wth 1.8-2.5m; max. D 1.2m) that is separated by a berm (Wth 6-7m) from an outer fosse (max. Wth 1.5m; max. D 0.85m). There were no entrance causeways and there were no internal features (ext. diam. 28m N-S; 28.8m E-W), but the outer fosse was cut at two points by a NNE-SSW field bank (Wth 4-6m) just E of the inner fosse. The inner fosse had eight fills of silty clays, some of which with a large yellow clay subsoil element can be interpreted as slump. Most of the finds recovered, including the 90 sherds of pottery and two iron objects were from the upper fills, which also had higher proportions of cremated bone and charcoal especially at the SE. The outer ditch had five fills of clayey silts and produced 129 sherds of pottery. It became shallower around the E side, and most of the cremated bone recovered was from a layer in the SW part. (Piera 2020, 11-13) See the attached plan from Piera (2020, fig. 8) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 10 December 2021