Metalworking site in Harlockstown

Metalworking site (max. OD 71m) 2 encl on top; rgdh on N slope): Situated at the crest of a N-facing slope down to a small W-E tributary on the S side of the Broad Meadow River in a fairly level landscape. Archaeological excavation (03E1526) from January to June 2004 by D. J. O’Connor at Site 19 in advance of the N2 Finglas – Ashbourne road and by-pass recorded a complex of prehistoric and early historic features (excavations.ie 2004:1249). The Iron Age is represented by the ring-ditch (ME045-034002-) and the results of metalworking, including bowl furnaces, pits, linear features, hearths, a large burnt spread, a possible wind-break, a keyhole kiln, and work floors. These are located largely at the crest of the slope and produced large quantities of slag, vitrified ash, clay moulds and furnace walls. A metaled surface (dims 15.5m x 7.7m) surviving over the W part of the ditch barrow (ME045-034----) probably relates to this phase as a bone sample from it produced a C14 date of 50 cal. BC – 70 cal. AD. Evidence of metalworking is spread over the entire area between the ditch barrow and the ring-ditch (ME045-034002-) as discrete hearths or pits with slag or furnace bottoms, and two slot-trenches, one of which may have served as a wind-break. Connections between discrete features are difficult to establish stratigraphically but there is a concentration of pits in the vicinity of the ditch barrow, some of which are in the upper fill of its fosse at N. A C14 date from one of these contexts is 840-520 cal. BC while the dates can range down to 200-40 cal. BC for a pit in the same area. Another pit produced a date of 120 cal. BC – 130 cal. AD, and a furnace bottom is dated 100 cal. BC-130 cal. AD, placing the metalworking activity in the Early Iron Age. Filling the top of the fosse on the E side of the ditch barrow was a layer (max. dims 14. 4m x 4.5m; D 0.15m) with charcoal, burnt stone, animal bone and pottery. This is interpreted as the last remnant of a mound of waste that was levelled when the rath (ME045-034003-) was built, and its material recurs as a re-deposit in later contexts. Four hearths (dims 0.3m to 0.7m x 0.9m) were c. 20m E of the ditch barrow and are associated with a curving slot-trench (Wth 0.43m; D 0.27m; L 7.8m) which is thought to be a wind-break on their W side. The hearths were unlined and no stake-holes were present but slag was plentiful. The hearths were just W of a well-constructed, sunken and subrectangular metaled floor (dims 11.2m x 9m) with rounded corners that sloped down (H 0.4m) to the W, with a drain (L 14.7m) extending N from its NW angle. A flint flake, a copper alloy needle and a bead were recovered from its surface together with slag and vitrified fuel ash. The surface was sealed by two deposits with some animal bone, charcoal and slag, but silt was a significant element in the lower fill, suggesting that it may have remained open until the upper fill was added in the early medieval period when the construction of the rath (ME045-034003-) was under way. (O’Connor 2008, 27-47) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 17 December 2021