Creativity, History and Technology

Navan Enclosure

Excavations were undertaken in the Navan enclosure by D M Waterman between 1963 and 1972. This large earthwork encloses the summit of a drumlin ridge and though only about 60 m above sea level has commanding views in all directions, especially to the northwest. It is this site which, in the past, has been specifically identified as the legendary capital of Ulster, the Emain Macha of the tales of the Ulster Cycle.

The enclosure is six hectares in area and is a large circle surrounded by a wide deep ditch with a very substantial external earthen bank, with an overall diameter of about 286m. There seems to have been an original entrance on the west.  The enclosure itself has not been excavated, so its date is uncertain. It has been suggested that it might be of 3rd millennium BC date(as is the case with some British 'henge monuments' with ditch and external bank), but a radiocarbon date from its ditch might indicate that it was constructed in later prehistoric times: a core from the ditch provided a date 766-398 BC, but it is not known if the sample came from the very lowest levels of the ditch, the date simply indicates that the ditch was dug at some date before this time.

Waterman's excavations were conducted at two visible monuments in the interior: a ring ditch(site A), much ploughed over and surviving mainly as a wide shallow ditch with traces of an external bank, 50m in external diameter, south-south-east of the centre of the enclosure and at a large circular flat-topped mound(site B), 50m in diameter and 6m high, standing on the centre of the hilltop about 55m west-north-west of the centre.

Geophysical survey has demonstrated the presence of other features within the enclosure, including a large double circle about 30m in diameter between sites A and B. Site A was partially excavated in 1961 and consisted of a wide annular ditch 2m deep and 5.5m wide on average, with a V-shaped profile.

The average outer diameter of the ditch was 37m.

No entrance was found in the area excavated.

The interior of the site appeared to be raised, but this appearance seems to be mainly due to the selection of a slight pre-existing

natural rise. There appeared to be a low, broad, external bank on the west. The excavation of the interior of the monument revealed two main phases. Features of phase A, definitely pre-dated the digging of the ditch, included three concentric slots 65cm wide on average, the outer and inner averaging almost 1m in depth, but the middle one averaged only about 50cm.

The diameters were 16.6m, 18.8m and 20.3m respectively and they were cut away by the later surrounding ditch.

A sequence was established showing that the middle slot was dug first, then the outer and finally the inner and it seemed that each slot was used in turn independently of the others. Entrances were not found in the area investigated. A series of post-pipes, 1m apart on average were located in the inner slot indicating that some form of timber walling had been embedded in it and was suggested therefore, that the three circles represented three successive timber structures.

Sherds of plain coarse bucket-shaped pottery and two radiocarbon dates from charcoal found in the inner and outer slots indicate a date between the 4th century BC and the 1st century AD.

The date of phase B is uncertain; this phase is represented by a pair of concentric ring slots with diameters of 12.2m and 16.3m with a wide space of 2m between them. The slots were about 30cm in width and in depth and had a n entrance on the east flanked by large post-holes. The inner slot continued across the fill of the outer phase A slot on the west, but all slots disappeared at this point.

 The phase B slots were not concentric with the ditch and their relationship is not clear, it may be that the two are not contemporary. There was a large post-hole, 70cm in diameter and 61cm deep, in the centre of this phase B structure as well as a number of scattered post-holes and a hearth.

 No finds came from this phase and no radiocarbon samples were recovered, but Waterman believed that the ring slots might represent a substantial house of the early Historic period, because two east-facing extended unburnt burials(one of which had been in a nailed coffin) were found to the east of the entrance and more or less flanking access. The only dating evidence for the ditch enclosure was provided by the terminal of a bronze brooch of early Historic or Viking Age found 90cm above the bottom of the ditch.