Cist

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated in the E centre 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 7’ in Hencken’s (ibid., 206) schema, this small irregular cist (int. dims. 0.7m N–S; 0.4m E–W; H 0.25m) comprised an E sidestone, two small overlapping N endstones and a S endstone. The cist was covered by two capstones. Inside the cist were found disturbed and fragmentary skeletal remains of a human infant, about eighteen months old. Under the cist were found charcoal fragments, one possibly poplar (or willow) and another likely yew (ibid.).

Hencken (ibid.) suggested that this cist had no W sidestone because it rested against the external packing-stones around the double cist (CL009-032017-) immediately to the W (later radiocarbon-dated to c. 2000 cal BC [Brindley and Lanting 1992, 16). Hencken proposed that the two cists were contemporary, as there was no evidence of a later disturbance in the cairn marking the insertion of this cist (CL009-032018-). Although it was not possible to acquire a radiocarbon date Brindley and Lanting (1992, 16) favoured assignment of this cist to a later general phase of mortuary activity at Poulawack cairn, in the mid-second millennium BC. This broad phase appears to have also included the ‘Grave 1’ burial (CL009-032012-), and the ‘Grave 2’ and ‘Grave 3’ cists (CL009-032013- and CL009-032014-) (Brindley and Lanting 1992, 16; Hencken and Movius 1935, 198–202, 206).

The following images have been uploaded:

CL009-032018-_01.jpg Photo of Graves 6 and 7 (Hencken and Movious 1935, Pl. XXI, Fig. 1)
CL009-032018-_02.jpg Photo of cairn and exposed cists from SE (Hencken and Movius 1935, Pl. XX, Fig. 3)
CL009-032018-_03.jpg Plan and section (from Hencken and Movius 1935, Fig. 6)

Compiled by: Mary Tunney and Conn Herriott

Date of upload: 19 January 2022

References

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

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.