What is recorded here

Knockane caves hold a golden burial so rare it still starts arguments. A quarryman broke through in 1805 to find a skeleton wrapped in embossed gold plates and amber beads, but greed or fear melted most of the shine away. One trapezoid plate escaped the furnace, carrying chevron marks that may point to Food Vessel people. The lost gold still circles in memory, while the surviving plate holds its shape against forgetting.

According to Fitzgerald (1858, 13-4) 'in 1805 a man was quarrying on Knockane, close to the present coach road, and nearby opposite Ballindinasgate', when he found 'a human skeleton, partly shrouded in a winding sheet of corrugated, or embossed plates of pure gold, connected by bits of wire, he also found some amber beads'. The gold was melted down except for one plate (see ill. Crocker 1824, 253; Day 1899, 413-4) now in National Museum of Ireland. Taylor (1980, 49) describes it as 'interesting trapezoid....seems to have been wired to something as it is riddled with holes....its decoration of chevrons suggests the Food Vessel period' (i.e. Early Bronze Age). 1935 OS 6-inch map indicates 'caves' in location identified by Fitzgerald (ibid.). In immediate vicinity are a number of prehistoric tumuli (CO077-012001-, CO077-008001-, CO077-009001-, CO077-010----, CO077-011----, CO077-013----). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 2: East and South Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1994). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

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