County: Louth Site name: CRUMLIN (1)
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 98E0615
Author: Patricia Lynch, for Valerie J. Keeley Ltd.
Site type: Cist
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 704700m, N 804216m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.976605, -6.403907
A single cist burial of a short rectangular type was discovered during work on the interceptor drains during the construction of the Northern Motorway/ Dunleer–Dundalk Bypass. The cist was orientated north–south and was on the top of the highest ridge in the immediate vicinity, overlooking the surrounding countryside.
Three cuttings were opened. Both Cuttings 1 and 3, which were placed to the east and west of the cist burial, contained nothing of archaeological significance.
Cutting 2 contained three features, the cist, a cairn and the cut within which the stones of the cist were placed. Art was recorded on the capstone and the eastern side stone. Much of it was very weathered. Chiselmarks were also visible on the back of the capstone. It is possible that the stones of the cist had been reused, because the weathering of the art on the cist, especially on the inside of the eastern side stone, was not consistent with the dry environment within the cist.
The remains of one human adult male were recovered from the cist. There was much post-mortem damage to the remains as a result of rodent activity. Upon removal of the base stones, further human bone fragments and a human tooth were recovered, again evidence of disturbance due to rodent activity.
The cist was placed in a large pit with the eastern side stone flat against the eastern side of the cut. Packing stones were used to fill the gap between the cut of the pit and the side stones.
The remains of a stone cairn were located to the south and west of the cist. This consisted of a horseshoe-shaped compact alignment and was possibly the fill from the pit into which the cist was placed. The stones ranged in size from 0.2m to 0.5m and were placed surrounding the cairn at a c. 25o angle. To the east of the cist only the fill of the cairn was present. This was possibly as a result of farming activity in the past.
The cist is considered to be Early Bronze Age in date. Radiocarbon dating results have not yet been received for the skeletal remains.
The site has now been totally excavated and the cist removed to Dundalk County Museum.
Editor’s note: The summary of this excavation, which was carried out during 1999, arrived too late for publication in the bulletin of that year.
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