Excavation

Situated on a gently undulating landscape. An area of sub-surface archaeological features was identified by Ian Russell in centre-line testing (02E0108) for the M4 Dublin to Galway motorway and set aside for resolution as Rossan 1. On excavation (02E0866) many of the features proved to be nineteenth century in date but a small area of prehistoric activity was recorded. This consisted of two rectangular troughs (dims 1.98m x 1.24m; max. D 0.17m: 1.95m x 1.52m; max. D 0.25m) placed c. 5m apart. Both had primary fills of sandy clays with some charcoal inclusions, and there were 7 stake-holes in the floor of first and a stake-hole in each corner of the second. In the same area were 8 pits (diam. 0.3m; D 0.06m to 1.8m x 1.23m; D 0.24m), some with a charcoal content, and two pieces of worked flint and a worked piece of chert were recovered from them. These features were covered by charcoal-rich deposits, although the broken and burnt stones material of a fulacht fia was entirely absent, and the deposits were cut by later cultivation furrows. Charcoal samples from the troughs produced C14 dates of Cal BC 1290-1283 and Cal BC 1100-790. (Corcoran 2004, 3-8) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 12 August 2019