Pit-burial

The National Monuments Service's description

Situated at the SW edge of a low-lying plateau, and at the crest of a steep slope down (H c. 10m) to a NW-SE section of the Blackwater River which is c. 60m distant. In the course of excavating a tirvallate early medieval enclosure (ME025-043001-) M. Cahill recorded a pit burial at the S edge of the innermost enclosure. The pit (max. diam. 0.63m) contained an encrusted urn and a bipartite vase, both inverted over cremated remains of an adult male and a child that were largely in the urn but had been shared with the vase. The base of the urn had been damaged but it has a decorative running chevron and bosses with incised panels of lines below. The vase, with its everted rim and all-over incised decoration, was complete, and both can be dated stylistically to c 2000-1830 BC. (Cahill 2011)

See the attached drawings from Cahill (2011, fig. 3.141) of the urn (_01) and Food Vessel (_02)

The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Meath' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1987). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 10 July 2007
Revised: 29 March 2023

Cahill, M. 2011 3:61 Nevinstown, Co. Meath, E000162. In Cahill and Sikora 2011, vol. 1, 371-77.
Cahill, M. and Sikora, M. 2011 Breaking ground, finding graves – reports on the excavattions of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 1927-2006. 2 vols, Wordell in association with the National Museum of Ireland, Dublin