Habitation site, Kilmartin, Co. Wicklow

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Settlement Sites

Habitation site, Kilmartin, Co. Wicklow

On a prominent rise at Kilmartin in County Wicklow, beneath ground that gave little outward sign of what lay beneath, excavators uncovered the traces of people who had lived there somewhere around five thousand years ago.

What emerged were pits, post-holes, and the remains of at least one circular structure, the kind of roundhouse that characterised domestic life in prehistoric Ireland, built from timber posts set into the earth and long since rotted away, leaving only the dark soil signatures of where they once stood.

Excavation began in November 2001, following an initial phase of testing that identified several distinct areas of archaeological activity across the site. Area 1, sited on that elevated ridge, contained large pits alongside the circular structure. Area 2 proved particularly revealing: truncated pits and post-holes here contained struck flint, that is, flint knapped or worked by hand into tools, along with pottery sherds, both materials pointing to occupation during the late Neolithic or early Bronze Age, a broad period running roughly from 3000 to 1500 BC. Struck flint and hand-built pottery appearing together in pits like these are among the more reliable indicators of sustained domestic activity rather than a brief or incidental presence. A further area, designated Area 4, was still under excavation at the time the findings were recorded.

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