Flat cemetery

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on a gentle a SE-facing slope and just above the steep slope down (H c. 10m) to the valley of a SSW-NNE portion of the River Boyne. Its precise location is not known but ploughing in 1990 revealed the capstone of a possible cist which was reported to the National Museum of Ireland. An exploratory excavation (90E0017) by H. Roche for the Museum in 1990 revealed a cemetery (excavationis.ie 1990: 090) which it was not possible for that archaeologist to excavate fully until 1994 under the same licence (excavations.ie 1994:189). The cemetery consists of eight stone cists and two pit burials but there was no evidence of a covering mound. The numbering of features in excavations.ie is not consistent with that in the full report (Roche 1994) which is followed here.

Cist 1 (dims 1.35m E-W; 0.75m N-S; D 0.5m) contained the remains of a child in a crouched position with the head at E but with no grave goods. Cist 2 (dims 1.3m x 1m; D 0.45m) had six side-stones but the capstone was missing and it contained the remains of an adult in a crouched position and the base of a poorly preserved pot.
Cist 3 (dims 0.76m N-S; 0.57m E-W; D 0.3m) contained the crouched inhumation of a juvenile facing E but with no grave-goods. Cist 4 (dims 0.82m x 0.71m; D 0.52m) had only three side-stones and contained some bones but no grave-goods. Cist 5 was a large cist (dims 1.6m x 1m; D 0.5m) with a large capstone (dims 1.65m x 1.6m; T 0.25m). It had been disturbed by a borrowing animal but held the disarticulated remains of an adult together with a Food Vessel sherd, a worked flint and a polished stone.

Cist 6 had been exposed in 1990 but it and the remainder of the features were excavated in 1994. Cist 6 (dims 0.68m x 0.51m; D 0.38m) had no capstone but it contained a substantial cremated deposit. There were no grave-goods but fragments of unburned human bone were found outside it. Cist 7 was a subcircular pit (dims 0.88m x 0.67m; max. D 0.62m) with some side-stones that was covered by a large hog-backed stone (dims 1.15m x 0.76m; H 0.58m). It contained neither a burial nor grave-goods although it had been disturbed and might not constitute a true cist. Cist 8 (dims 0.93m x 0.58m; max. D 0.22m) was constructed of small stones but had also been disturbed and lacked a capstone. It contained a large cremation deposit that had the poorly preserved remains of a tripartite bowl food vessel on top of it and a cremated boar’s tusk and a chert fragment within it. Pit-burial 1 (dims 0.66m x 0.48m; D 0.17m) had small stones lining its base and a poorly preserved food vessel was with the cremation, but only the edge of Pit-burial 2 was within the excavated area. (Roche 1994)

See the attached site plan from Roche (1994, fig. 2)

Compiled by: Michael Moore

Date of upload: 30 March 2023

Roche, H. 1994 Early Bronze Age Cemetery at Donaghmore, County Meath. Licence: 90E0017. Unpublished report, Author