Burial in Ploopluck

A cemetery of pit burials was discovered in an esker during gravel extraction in 1935. The recorded burials comprised: (1) an inhumation accompanied by a bowl food vessel; (2) an inhumation accompanied by a bowl food vessel; (3) a crouched inhumation accompanied by a bowl food vessel; (4) an unaccompanied inhumation. A fifth burial containing the inhumations of four individuals accompanied by a bowl food vessel and an urn sherd from this site may not be directly associated with the cemetery (Raftery 1951, 150). Compiled by: Gearóid Conroy Date of upload: 10 June 2011

A Neolithic pit burial; dates to the 4th–3rd millennium BCE. Its significance lies in the presence of a food vessel, indicating early funerary practices associated with the dead in Irish Neolithic cemeteries.