What is recorded here

Rossan 3 lies beneath a gentle Meath landscape, holding three pits that span from BC 1760 to AD 1280. The oldest contained pottery marked by finger-nail impressions, suggesting human hands shaped clay before the motorway was dreamed. The youngest held charcoal from a medieval fire, while slag-filled lines hinted at forgotten making. Depth and time are not the same; one pit cuts through another, layering lives instead of replacing them.

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 as Rossan 3. It was completely excavated (02E1065) when three pits were recorded with charcoal or burnt clay in their fills. One rectangular pit (dims 1m x 0.6m; D 0.15m) produced a C 14 date of Cal AD 1030-1280, while a second (diam. 0.7m; D 0.2m) had sherds of prehistoric pottery decorated with incised lines and finger-nail impressions. A charcoal sample from the pit with the pottery produced a C14 date of Cal BC 1760-1440. The third oval pit (dims 0.4m x 0.27m; D 0.1m) was cut into the circular pit. Some linear features (L 0.2-0.6m) in the area were filled with metal slag and there were some post-medieval drains. (Murphy 2003, 3-7) Compiled by: Michael Moore Date of upload: 13 August 2019

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