County: Clare Site name: PARKNABINNIA
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0230
Author: Carleton Jones
Site type: Megalithic tomb - court tomb
Period/Dating: Neolithic (4000BC-2501 BC)
ITM: E 525369m, N 693329m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.985499, -9.111454
The 1999 field season ran for eight weeks from 5 July to 27 August. Trench A, begun in 1998, was finished in 1999. Trench C, a new trench encompassing the north-east quadrant of the site, was opened, and excavation was also begun on the first and second chambers.
The base has not yet been reached in either Chamber 1 or Chamber 2. Both contained a mixture of small to large stones with very dark brown/black silt loam between the stones. Bone was found throughout the stone and soil fill. Some of the bone appears to be in situ relatively high in the rubble fill of the chamber. In other words, some of the bone in the chambers may post-date some of the stones in the chambers.
Within a fairly homogeneous spread of human and animal bone in Chamber 1 were two discernible concentrations. In the north-east corner of Chamber 1 is an upright pillar-like stone that may have been a support for a corbelled roof. Near the base of this stone a group of long bones had been pushed down along the stone's edge. The second concentration is against the southern wall of Chamber 1, where a pile of disarticulated bone was topped with a partial skull.
Four large slabs were used to block the rear of the tomb off from Chamber 1. These stones leaned against the jamb stones that separate Chamber 1 from Chamber 2. A femur and a pelvis lay in apparent articulation on top of what may be a sill stone separating the two chambers. One of the slabs used for the blocking was wedged down on top of the femur, snapping it off near its proximal end.
A large amount of human and animal bone was recovered, most contained in the two chambers. Some of the human bone was cremated; a large amount was not. Most of the human bone appears to have been deposited in a disarticulated state. In two instances, however, a femur and a pelvis were close enough and aligned properly enough to suggest articulation.
Finds included a leaf-shaped arrowhead with a possible tang, a convex scraper, a chert blade, debitage, a possible sharpening stone, a bone 'bead' and pottery.
63 Cregaun, Tobarteascain, Ennis, Co. Clare
