What is recorded here

Four thousand years of forgotten fires still warm the sandy clay beneath Pottlebane. A shallow hollow held a hearth and burnt bone when the Early Bronze Age first touched the valley, while smaller pits marked medieval seasons of temporary life. The M3 motorway opened seven thousand square metres of that forgotten ground, pulling hazel and oak charcoal from darkness to reveal how often people came, played with flame, and left before memory could keep them.

Situated on top of and on the slopes of a low rise on the floor of the valley of the River Blackwater, with a WNW-ESE section of the stream c. 170m to the N. Archaeological testing (04E1058) by G. McLoughlin (2005) at Testing Area 7 of Contract 5 of the M3 motorway identified archaeological features in a fairly limited area (dims c. 40m E-W; c. 30m N-S) that were completely excavated (E003181) by S. Rathbone in January - February 2007 (excavations.ie 2007:1375) as Pottlebane 1 when a large area of c. 7000 square metres was opened. Eight small pits and a large pit or hollow were excavated. The hollow (dims 5.4m N-S; 4.4m E-W; max. D 0.42m) had a hearth (dims 0.64m x 0.54m; T 0.1m) at its W edge and a spread (dims 1m x 0.8m; T 0.06m) of burnt pink sand with charcoal and some burnt bone. A sample of hazel charcoal from this produced a C14 date of 2136-1960 Cal. BC (Beta 247192) placing it in the Early Bronze Age. The hollow was filled with grey/brown sandy clay from which a body sherd of prehistoric pottery was derived. This layer was cut and filled with orange/brown sandy clays from which a chert blade and two chert flakes were recovered. Just E of the hollow a linear cut (dims 1.14m x 0.26m; D 0.12m) was filled with a loose sandy silt from which another a neck sherd of prehistoric pottery vessel was recovered. The pits (dims 1.4m x 0.8m; D 0.2m to 1.8m x 1.16m; D 0.2m) are rather dispersed (c. 12-30m apart) and one produced a sherd of prehistoric pottery while another yielded a C14 date of 889-1022 Cal. AD (Beta 247190) from a sample of oak charcoal. Another pit (1.56m x 1.24m; D 0.34m) had six fills, and the basal layer of brown / black sandy silt had frequent charcoal inclusions, and is interpreted a hearth. A fragment of oak charcoal from this layer produced a C14 date of Cal. AD 695-976 (Beta 247193). Three smaller pits (dims 0.75m x 0.66m to 2m x 1.06m; D 0.28m) at the SE base of the rise had sandy silt fills with frequent charcoal inclusions. A few burnt grains are associated with them and a sample of hazel charcoal from one provided a C4 date of 2136-1906 Cal. BC (Beta 247191). Two periods of casual, temporary activity dating to the Early Bronze Age and the Early medieval are indicated. (Rathbone and Ginn 2008) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 4 March 2022

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