Recent excavations and speculations on the Navan complex

Abstract

Emain Macha, the legendary seat of the kings of Ulster, has long been identified with the Navan complex, 2.6 km west of Armagh. This complex comprises more than a dozen proximate, in some cases presumably associated. prehistoric monuments (Warner 1994). Excepting a number of outlying monuments, the major portion of the Navan complex is anchored between to large enclosures, each with adjacent sitcs associated with votive depositions in water. On the east is Navan Fort defined by a hengiform bank-and-ditch enclosure some 230 m across and containing two field monuments: Site A, a ring-work c. 50 m across with a low rise in the centre, and Site B, a 6–7-m high mound (FIGURE 1) . At the eastern base of the drumlin on which the enclosure sits is Loughnashade, a small lake from whose marshy edge four large Iron Age horns, at least one of which bore La The decoration, were recovered in the late 18th century (Raftery 1987).