2015:146 - Parknabinnia, Roughan Hill, Clare

During the months of June, July and August of 2015, our field school, staff and students excavated a very dilapidated wedge tomb on Roughan Hill. The tomb was missing its capstone and one of its side-stones. The excavation aimed to address questions and theories set out in Jones et al. 2015.
Prior to the excavation, relatively little was visible and the site had only been discovered during an intensive survey in the 1990s (Jones et al. 1996, Site E). A surrounding mound and some possible kerb remnant were also noted during that survey.
The excavation comprised three trenches. Trench 1 was 10m by 10m and Trench 2 10m by 4m. These were separated by a 1m baulk which traversed the tomb chamber. The interior of the chamber was treated separately and designated Trench 3.
Removal of the sod revealed a substantial circular stone cairn, approximately 7m in diameter, surrounding the chamber (Fig. 1). Where surviving, the outer edge was neatly kerbed by large slabs up to 1m in length. A second inner kerb-line, most obvious to the rear of the chamber and around 4m in diameter, was concealed within the cairn (Fig. 2). In terms of sequence, the chamber must have been built first and then the cairn would seem to have been added in two stages, however it is not clear how much time, if any, there was between these stages.
The chamber was approximately 2m long and 1m wide and orientated to the west-south-west. While one side-stone was missing, judging from the front blocking stone and the size of rear of the chamber, the tomb was wider to the front than the rear. The alignment of a possible pinning stone, for the missing side-stone and similar to the stone pinning the extant side-stone, would support this supposition. It would appear that, internally the chamber was c. 0.9m wide at the rear and c. 1.1m wide at the front. The extant side-stone and the front blocking-stone were carefully knapped into shape and the side-stone rose noticeably toward the front of the chamber (Fig 3); at the rear it was c. 0.5m high and at the front 0.75m high.
The entire contents of the chamber, the area to the front of the chamber and a section through the cairn, to the north-east of the chamber, were excavated. A substantial amount of cremated and unburnt human bone was retrieved. The majority of the bone came from within the chamber, where it was retrieved from within a layer of soil underlying a layer of stone. There were few notable concentrations that could be interpreted as individual deposits; rather, the bone appeared mixed throughout the layer of soil. All of the bone from within the chamber was excavated in 0.2m squared blocks in two spits, c. 50mm deep. The bone is currently being analysed by osteoarchaeologist, Dr Linda Lynch and Zooarchaeologist, Dr Fiona Beglane.
There were no obvious grave goods within the chamber, however some partially articulated sheep/goat bones, retrieved from under the front of the sidestone, may represent the remains of an offering.
An unburnt, and at least partially articulated adult was uncovered within the stones stacked up against the  outside of the chamber at the north-east. It sat largely within the voids among the stones, however some elements that had fallen to the base of the cairn were suspended within soil.
Several lithics were retrieved from and around the cairn. These were mostly debitage and cannot be stratigraphically tied to the burial depositions within the tomb. The assemblage does include one particularly fine flint blade and several other stuck lithics that are not of a local geology.
Once the osteological and zooarchaeological analyses are complete a comprehensive programme of radiocarbon dating, aDNA and isotope analyses is planned. Two petrous bones have already been forwarded for aDNA analyses and the initial results are promising.

References:
Jones, C., McVeigh, T. & Ó Maoldúin, R. 2015. Monuments, Landscape and Identity in Chalcolithic Ireland. In: K. Springs (ed.) Landscape and Identity: Archaeology and Human Geography. 3-26. BAR International Series 2709.
Jones, C., Walsh, P. & Ó Cearbhaill, P. 1996. Recent Discoveries on Roughaun Hill, County Clare. The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, 126, 86-107.

Laghtagoona House, Gort Rd, Corofin, Co. Clare.