Cist

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated S of centre in the upper part of Poulawack cairn (CL009-032002. Excavated by the Third Harvard Archaeological Expedition in Ireland, under Hugh O’Neill Hencken (Hencken and Movius 1935), who subsequently restored the cairn. ‘Grave 2’ in Hencken’s schema, this subrectangular cist (int. dims. 0.8m E–W; 0.45–0.5m N–S; H 0.6–0.65m) was made up of N and S sidestones set on their long edges, two overlapping endstones at the E, one at the W, and two overlapping capstones. The cist had no slab flooring; instead, the sides and ends were supported underneath by smaller stones. The grave contained cremated human remains, mostly likely of an adult female (Hencken and Movius 1935, 198). A flint end-scraper and bone point found in the cairn matrix beneath the cist were interpreted by the excavators as burial offerings from the grave which had been washed down (ibid., 201, 209, Fig. 9).

This cist was constructed within a suboval pit (c. 6.5m N–S; c. 4m E–W; D c. 1.8m) dug into the top of the cairn (ibid., Fig. 2, 199). The cist did not yield samples for radiocarbon dating, however, a cist (CL009-032014-) found c. 1.5m to the N within the same pit and therefore likely to be roughly contemporary (ibid.) was later radiocarbon-dated to between c. 1610 cal BC and c. 1432 cal BC (Brindley and Lanting 1992, 16). This falls within the final broad phase of mortuary activity at Poulawack cairn, during the mid-second millennium BC, when ‘Grave 1’ (CL009-032012-) was also added, and possibly also ‘Grave 7’, a cist (CL009-0032018-) (ibid.) although the evidence for the Grave 7 date is equivocal.

The following images have been uploaded:

CL009-032013-_01.jpg Cist plan and section (Hencken and Movius 1935, Fig. 5)
CL009-032013-_02.jpg Photograph showing the location of Graves '2' and '5' within the cairn (Hencken and Movius 1935, Pl. XX, Fig. 2)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 12 January 2022

References

Hencken, H. and Movius, H. L. 1935 A cairn at Poulawack County Clare: with a report on the human remains. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 5, 191–222.

Brindley, A. and Lanting, J. 1992 Radiocarbon dates from the cemetery at Poulawack, Co. Clare. Journal of Irish Archaeology 6, 13–17.