County: Kilkenny Site name: ARDRA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: —
Author: Raghnall Ó Flóinn, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin
Site type: Cist
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 653439m, N 675339m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.826361, -7.207059
A stone slab was dislodged in the course of laying a Telecom cable trench revealing a cist slightly trapezoidal in plan, wider at the east end. It consisted of 4 principal side-stones set on edge, leaning inwards. On all sides a series of packing stones were visible. The covering stone—a large triangular shaped slab—lay directly on these. The cist itself measured 1m in length and 0.5m in width at the base. The long bones which had been removed were, according to the finder, lying parallel to one another close to the northern edge of the grave. The jaw bone had been removed and replaced but lay originally in the centre of the cist. Portions of human long bones were visible in various parts of the cist.
Excavation soon revealed that the bone was in a poor state of preservation and that the burial had been placed in a disarticulated position. Fragments of the skull were found at the eastern end of the cist. There was no trace of a vessel or other accompanying objects. The floor of the cist consisted of a very fine grey sandy gravel and the bones lay directly on this.
