Excavation — miscellaneous in Ballycourcy More

Situated in a gently undulating landscape. It was first identified in archaeological testing (E004551) of land required for the M11 Motorway (Ruttle 2014, 13-15), and was subsequently completely excavated (E004564) as Ballycourcy More 5. Twenty eight features were recorded in a fairly limited area (dims c. 30m NW-SE; c. 15m NE-SW), but some of the features were truncated by medieval or post-medieval field ditches and furrows. Eleven pits and three post-holes were identified as prehistoric. The pits vary from small (0.57m x 0.54m; D 0.22m) to the largest (dims 1.64m x 0.62m; D 0.24m), which with its fills of silty sands with charcoal could be a hearth, and it produced 17 sherds of prehistoric pottery. A second possible hearth (dims 1.12m x 0.94m; D 0.47m) c. 5m to the NW had a similar red silty sand fill with some charcoal and produced prehistoric pottery, flints and a fragment of a possible quernstone. Five of the pits (dims 1.907-1.22m x 0.6-0./75m; D 0.15-024m) have similar fills of grey to brown silty sand with occasional stones and flecks of charcoal. One pit contained a large quantity of worked flint, including cores and debitage. Another group of three pits with similar fills of brown silty clay at the NW extent produced six sherds of pottery and a rubbing or hammer-stone. Two of the smallest pits could be interpreted was post-holes, and three definite post-holes are present but no pattern is discernible and no stake-holes are recorded. (Ruttle 2015) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 26 November 2020