Kiln — corn-drying in Gunnocks

Archaeological monitoring (15E0577) by P. Duffy, D. Bayle and J. Whitaker of topsoil stripping over a large area (c. 92 ha.) conducted intermittently between Dec. 2015 and October 2018 uncovered 37 locations of potential archaeological importance (excavations.ie 2016:051). Each of these was further investigated by the same archaeologists under different licences. At Site 31 ext., excavation (16E0634 ext.) recorded an L-shaped cereal-drying kiln as well as several depression that might be natural and numerous linear E-W features that might be furrows. The kiln was comprised of a chamber (dims 1.5m NW-SE; 1.3m NE-SW; D 0.3m) at the NE end of an irregular flue (dims 1.8m x 1.6m; D 0.3m) that extended SW from the chamber. The flue had two post-holes at the S end of the SE side that gave access to the firing chamber (L 1.8m; Wth 1.6m; max. D 0.25m) that extended to the SE and shallowed out at the SE end. The flue was filled with layers of yellow/grey to black silty clays interleaved with lenses of charcoal. The firing chamber had ten similar layers with burnt clays, and it had a fire-reddened base. There was some undiagnostic burnt bone in the fills as well as large quantities of charred grains, principally of barley and wheat. Charcoal samples from the firing chamber provided C14 date of 2830-2471 cal. BC (FTMC-BD08-6) from a fruitstone and 687-884 cal. AD (FTMC-BD08-8) from a wheat grain, but the former must be residual and intrusive. A linear cut (dims 3m x 1.77m; D 0.05m) just 1m to the N was filled with two layers of silty sand that had charcoal and is interpreted as a fire-pit or hearth. An iron nail and a bone pin were recovered from it, and an iron blade and retouched flint were recovered from other contexts. (Duffy et. al. 2021, 26-8) See the attached plan from Duffy et al. (2021, fig. 31) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 April, 2023 Duffy, P., Fairhead, S. & F. Fleeshouven 2021 Final Excavation Report for Sites 3-37, Clonee, Portan, Gunnocks, Co. Meath. Multiple licences, Unpublished report, Irish Archaeological Consultancy