Cist

The National Monuments Service's description

The National Museum of Ireland recorded that in ‘January 1980 a short cist containing an inhumation and a vase was discovered during bulldozing on a farm near Killucan, Co. Westmeath. The site was reported to the NMI by Ms Joan Vandeleur, Wardenstown, Co. Westmeath. A rescue excavation was carried out by Mary ill, assisted by Kieran Campbell, and the human remains were examined by Professor C.A. kine. Two other burials had previously been found in this townland, in the adjacent field. The cist was just 500m north of an early Bronze Age pit burial excavated by Etienne Rynne in 1964 (Vandeleur 1963-6). A third burial in the form of a pit is reported to have been found in the vicinity the latter, but was destroyed upon discovery (Waddell 1990, 149). The cist, which lay approximately 0.3m below ground level, was trapezoidal in plan, with long axis aligned north/south. It measured 0.95m long by 0.55m wide by 0.48m high. The chamber was constructed of four main slabs set on edge, each one forming a c wall. These slabs were large in proportion, the maximum thickness being 0.3m. The end slab inclined inwards slightly and, in some cases (at the north-eastern and south-western come: a number of small flat slabs had been laid flat over the sides to ensure that the capstone would be level. A number of packing stones were also visible around the outside of the cist. The floor of the cist was not paved but was formed of earth with a few small stone inclusions. A la rectangular capstone measuring 0.9m long by 0 82m wide by 0.3m thick sealed the cist. The cist contained a crouched inhumation of a young adult male (1980:43-) accompanied by a vase of anomalous type (Ó Ríordáin and Waddell 1993, 141) and a mussel shell (1980:134). The skeleton lay with the head to the south, facing east. The legs were tightly flexed and the rig arm also, but the left arm bones were not visible. The burial fitted tightly into the cist, with t feet apparently placed flat against the northern end stone. The vessel had been placed immediately east of the skull, and the shell was found between the skull and the vessel' (Cahill and Sikora 2011, vol. 1, 503-04).

References

Vandeleur, R.S. 1965 Prehistoric Pit Burial at Clonickilvant, Co. Westmeath. Ríocht na Mídhe 3 (3), 256-257.

Ó Ríordáin, B. and Waddell, J. 1993 The funerary bowls and vases of the Irish Bronze Age. Galway University Press.

Cahill, M. and Sikora, M. (eds) 2011 Breaking ground, finding graves - reports on the excavations of burials by the National Museum of Ireland, 1927-2006, 2 vols. Dublin. Wordwell Ltd. in association with the National Museum of Ireland.