County: Wicklow Site name: RATHGALL (Rath East td)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Mr. B. Raftery, Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin
Site type: Burial
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 690131m, N 673140m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.801715, -6.663352
During the spring of 1974 a brief campaign took place at Rathgall to complete the examination of the Late Bronze Age burial complex uncovered in 1973 (Excavations 1973). In the course of this investigation a further burial deposit was discovered within the ditched enclosure.
The interment occurred in a carefully dug, funnel-shaped pit. On the flat base of this pit a coarse, bucket-shaped pot containing cremated human remains had been placed. A dense black organic substance, which appeared to be the scraped up material from the funeral pyre, was packed around the vessel. A flat slab rested directly on the rim of the latter and on top of this was a larger rock which completed the sealing of the burial deposit.
Upon examination by Professor Erskine, Trinity College, Dublin, the human remains proved to be those of an adult and child.
Finally, additional confirmation of the Late Bronze Age date for the sepulchral activity here represented, was obtained by the discovery of two amber beads in the fill of the ditch which encloses the burial area and which undoubtedly forms an intrinsic part of the burial complex.
