County: Meath Site name: NEWGRANGE
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Ann Lynch, Office of Public Works
Site type: Megalithic tomb - passage tomb
Period/Dating: Prehistoric (12700 BC-AD 400)
ITM: E 700679m, N 772746m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.694712, -6.475492
In July and August excavation continued eastward along the perimeter of the cairn from K67 to K78, thereby clearing the area necessary for consolidation of the back of the mound. The cairn material was removed by machine and cuttings were excavated extending southward from the kerbstones for a distance of c.2.5m.
As revealed in 1988, the cairn consisted of loose stone (mostly limestone with some sandstone and granite) with no evidence of stabilising layers of turves or clay. Immediately under the cairn, layers of redeposited turves had been placed on the old ground surface. The number of turves increased southwards towards the centre of the cairn as if an effort was being made to emphasise the natural slope of the ground. Small quantities of animal bones were recovered from the turves.
The original sod layer of the old ground surface, at the time of cairn construction, had survived well. Two large end-of-blade scrapers were found on the surface of this sod layer in addition to several waste flint flakes and small nodules. Considerable pre-cairn leaching had taken place as evidenced by the continuous iron pan underlying the sod of the old ground surface. A few shallow stakeholes and irregular-shaped depressions were cut into the boulder clay behind K75. These were the only indications of pre-cairn activity.
The sockets for the kerbstones had been cut through the old ground surface and the stones put in position before the turves and cairn material were deposited. Large stones were used to both prop and pack around the kerbstones. No straightening of kerbstones was necessary. Most of the kerbstones show evidence of random pockmarks with a few examples of formal art. The latter consisted of cup and circle, chevron, concentric semicircles, zig-zag and crude spiral motifs.
A cutting (c.9m x 2m) was also excavated northwards across the bank outside K79. The upper 1m - 1.5m consisted of relatively modern dumps of stone which overlay various layers of cairn collapse. The lowermost collapse contained a high proportion of quartz stones which extended c.2.7m outwards from K79. No trace of the sod layer of the old ground surface had survived, which was the situation also described by O'Kelly for the area in front of the mound. It is possible that the turves piled up inside the kerb were stripped from the area immediately outside the limits of the mound.
