Archaeologists have found an early pre-historic cemetery on the route of the M3 motorway, including evidence of traditional burial, cremation pits and contemporary pottery.
The site, described as a ring ditch site, was discovered in Ardsallagh, just north of the River Boyne.
Ms Mary Deevy, the archaeologist in charge of test-trenching for Meath County Council and the National Roads Authority (NRA), said it was probably the remains of a burial mound.
"Sites like this were ploughed up by farming over the centuries and this is no different," she told The Irish Times. "It's in a ploughed field and there are no visible signs on the surface."
Ms Deevy said the location had been pinpointed as an area of potential archaeological interest in an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the €680 million motorway project.
Test-trenching had confirmed that it was an archaeological site. "We've got a circular ditch, at least one inhumation or traditional extended burial, plus a number of cremation pits."
Ms Deevy said the archaeologists had also uncovered the rim of a pot and were hoping the site would yield intact pieces of pre-historic pottery when it came to be properly excavated.
"All we've done so far is to take photographs, plan other features, backfill the site and prepare a report for Meath County Council, the National Museum and the heritage service."
Asked to assess the Ardsallagh site, Ms Deevy was unsure whether it merited national or international significance. "It's nice to get a site like this, especially something new," she said.
The Save the Tara-Skryne Valley Group, which is campaigning against the M3, said the find came as no surprise as the area around Tara was Ireland's "national graveyard" for centuries.
Leading members of the group are to meet the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment tomorrow to demand that work on the M3, including test-trenching, "cease immediately".
A spokesman said they would also be demanding answers from the NRA on the cost of the archaeology on the chosen route and discrepancies over the number of sites affected.
The group wants the Tara complex to be designated as a World Heritage Site and be placed on the 100 most-endangered sites list, following a UNESCO visit to the Boyne Valley in February.
The motorway plan has provoked a spate of letters to The Irish Times from Irish and international academics.
