EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Meath
Fifty two burials were revealed in the central and southern areas of the inner and second
enclosures. The majority in the central area were extended in simple unlined graves and
aligned west-east. Two of the graves may have been covered with stone slabs. Finds
associated with these burials were limited and included a stone ball, a flint flake and
fragments of two iron nails. Soil surrounding the two graves where stone slabs were present
produced a sherd of E ware. Charcoal has dated two of the graves to A.D. 597-673 and A.D.
856-989 which suggests that the cemetery was in use from at least the sixth to tenth
centuries.
Ten badly damaged slab-lined graves were located at the south-eastern section of the inner
enclosure and some extended into the second enclosure. As with the burials above, they
were extended and aligned west-east. One of the graves utilised a fragment of a stone slab
featuring megalithic art. A bronze baluster-headed ring-headed pin was found in the topsoil
above this section of the cemetery.
A potential trapezoidal structure was located at the western section of the inner enclosure. It
was defined by four roughly circular pits. One of the pits appears to have been a post-pipe
and was surrounded by packing clay and a large charcoal rich layer. The eastern wall of the
post-hole sloped gradually suggesting either that the post was erected at an angle or that it
was used as a structural support. Charcoal and cereal grains were present in its fill and the
former produced a date of A.D. 561-652.
Habitation evidence was evident in the south-eastern area between the inner and second
enclosing ditches. Excavation revealed a platform defined by a curving trench and some pits.
Artefacts within the soft dark clay that overlay the platform included a toggle-like object
made from a sperm whale’s tooth, worked horn and a small worked bone fragment.
Agricultural activity within the enclosures was represented by plough-marked stones,
cultivation furrows, trenches and ditches. Radiocarbon date from two of the trenches – one of
which contained a spindle whorl and the other charred seeds – demonstrates that farming
occurred at Knowth Site M between the mid-sixth and late-ninth centuries.
Fig. 240: Excavated areas at Knowth ‘M’, Co. Meath (after Stout & Stout 2008, 8).
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