EMAP_Progress_Reports_2009_2.pdf - The Heritage Council

Meath
suggests a network of trade and exchange between high-status sites in Brega and possibly
further-a-field.
A potential outer enclosure ditch approximately 14m west of the settlement-cemetery
enclosure was detected. It followed the same curvature for a length of 28.4m and was 3.4m
in width and up to 1.4m in depth. Iron slag was retrieved from one of its four fills. A large U-
shaped shallow pit which contained animal bone was located between the inner and outer
enclosure
ditches.
A number of linear ditches and cereal-drying kilns were representative of agricultural activity
at Ratoath to the east of the enclosure. The former produced few artefacts but substantial
quantities of animal bone were present. The ditches formed roughly rectangular enclosures
and were dated between the fifth and eighth centuries. Several variously-shaped cerealdrying
kilns were also identified to the east of the enclosure and they produced large
quantities of cereal grains. A large example with a baffle stone was dated to A.D. 860-1018
while a teardrop-shaped and a figure-of-eight-shaped kiln both produced Iron Age dates.
Metallurgical activity – mostly ironworking – was evident in a number of areas surrounding
the settlement-cemetery. A large volume of iron smithing slag was recovered from the fills of
two L-shaped ditches immediately to the north of the enclosure. A substantial ditch, which
extended from the south-east side of enclosure, produced a large quantity of iron smithing
slag. A portion of a lignite bracelet was also uncovered in the ditch fill. Two dates from the
ditch fills ranged from A.D. 427-608 to A.D. 637-772. This larger ditch formed an annexe with
two other smaller ditches which enclosed a large charcoal spread, a small keyhole-shaped kiln
(dated to A.D. 431-600). Iron smithing slag was again recovered in large quantities from this
area. It appears that smithing was undertaken at specific areas outside the enclosure while
an absence of iron smelting slag suggests this occurred further away from the site and
probably nearer to where raw materials such as bog ore was sourced.
Non-ferrous metalworking potentially occurred immediately to the west of the enclosure.
Several small features, which were badly truncated by modern farm work, produced a lead
ingot and a crucible sherd.
Ratoath was a multi-period site which developed from a prehistoric burial place into a much
larger early medieval settlement, agricultural and industrial centre. Many phases were
identified within the enclosure and its neighbouring field systems and cereal-drying kilns.
Therefore, its inhabitants were involved in a range of farming and industrial activities across
many centuries in tandem with the site’s use as both a dwelling place and a place for burying
the dead.
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