County: Derry Site name: STRAID
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: N.F. Brannon, Historic Monuments Branch, DOE
Site type: Cist
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 659538m, N 905789m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 54.896325, -7.071828
A report was received of human remains at a land improvement scheme in Straid townland. An adult male skeleton and one tripartite bowl had been removed by workers from within Cist I. Subsequent to the visit a second cist (Cist II) was disturbed by machining, fragmenting another pottery vessel and disturbing two cremations.
Return visits to monitor machining revealed two intact mica schist stone cists, (Cists III and IV). Cist III contained one skeleton, two cremations and a bowl and Cist IV contained one skeleton and a bowl.
Total: 4 cists, 3 skeletons, 4 cremations, 4 pottery vessels. It seems likely that the cists found represent the total present, a family/kinship group burial ground, established in the second millennium B.C.
Anatomical Data
Cist I: male, 20-22 yrs, 6'2"-6'3"; strongly developed right arm; no evidence of disease or injury.
Cist I: cremations, male adult and 3-4 yr. child.
Cist III: male, c. 35 yrs, 5'11"; cremations, 2 mature females.
Cist IV: male, 25-30 yrs, 5'6" - 5'7"; moderate to slight build.
