County: Westmeath Site name: BURNELLSTOWN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Fionnbarr Moore, Archaeological Survey of Ireland
Site type: Cist
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 645641m, N 749923m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.497331, -7.312124
The cist was discovered in a disused gravel quarry by the children of the landowner in May 1987. It was a rectangular stone built structure (1.0m x 0.6m), roofed by a single capstone and orientated in a north-east/ south-west direction. It contained a crouched adult inhumation with a tripartite bowl food vessel, in a good state of preservation, placed behind its shoulders and a cremation deposited on top of its legs. An adjoining stone-lined, bucket shaped pit contained the cremated remains of at least one individual.
The food vessel is now in the National Museum of Ireland and the human remains are presently being examined in the Dept. of Anatomy in U.C.C.
Editor's Note: This site was excavated in 1987 but missed inclusion in any form in the Excavations bulletin of that year.
5-7 Austin Friars St., Mullingar, Co. Westmeath
