Children's burial ground

The National Monuments Service's description

In a rath (MA038-004----). In 2002-3 the rath was partly excavated (02E0598) in advance of road construction (Zajac 2011). The excavation revealed that a confined area (2m N–S; 4.5m E–W) in the northern sector of the rath interior was used as a children's burial ground. Several graves had crude stone markers at both the head and foot of the grave. The majority of the burials were poorly preserved, the bones disturbed and co-mingled, but five oval-shaped grave-cuts, oriented roughly E–W, contained intact skeletons. A minimum of 34 but possibly as many as 60 individuals were interred here, aged between 29 weeks in utero and six months. There was a single burial of an adolescent/adult. Shroud pins, as well as nails and fragments of pine wood, probably from coffins, were recovered. The burials were dated to the late 19th-century, based on the evidence of the shroud pins and on radiocarbon determinations. The burial ground was fully excavated, and following post- excavation analysis, the bones were reinterred in Crossmolina graveyard. (Zajac 2011).

Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 23 July 2019

References

Zajak, S. 2011 Excavations of a ringfort at Carrowkeel, Co. Mayo. In C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds) Settlement in Early Medieval Ireland in the Light of Recent Archaeological Excavations. Research Papers in Irish Archaeology, 3, 331-343. Bray: Wordwell.