County: Derry Site name: SHANTALLOW
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: N.F. Brannon, Historic Monuments and Buildings Branch, DOE(NI).
Site type: Burial
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 645142m, N 920686m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 55.031662, -7.293900
Ploughing of a field in Shantallow townland, near the Donegal border, disturbed a cist burial and an emergency excavation took place in poor weather conditions on Monday 14 March.
The cist as first seen comprised a dislodged capstone, four side-stones forming the cist, and the interior filled with collapsed soil from the plough-zone.
Excavation revealed a rectangular cist, its long axis aligned north-east/south-west, measuring approximately 0.95m x 0.5m and 0.45m deep. The cist was constructed from thin slabs of local shale. There was no flooring, the base of the cist consisting of subsoil clay. The clay had been laid in a large pit and the space behind the cist walls backfilled with a sterile mixture of stone and subsoil.
Excavation of the cist revealed the poorly preserved remains of a single inhumation, an adult lying on his/her right hand side with the head to the north. Only the frontal bones of the skull, the upper jaw, and parts of femurs and tibias survived. The body had been flexed, with the knees drawn up to the chest.
Behind the head, in the north-east corner of the cist, lay an almost complete tripartite bowl.
