Cist in Greatdown

Cahill and Sikora (2011, 510-12) record that ‘in March 1979 a short cist containing an inhumation and a bowl was discovered during the digging of a drain for a dwelling house near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath. The cist slabs had been removed by the landowner before the contents were realised to be archaeological. The cist was reported to the NMI by Mr Jeremiah Sheehan of Moate, and a rescue excavation was undertaken by Joseph McCabe and Brian Ronayne of the Archaeological Survey, Office of Public Works, on behalf of the Museum. This report is based on the accounts of the excavators. The human remains were examined by Laureen Buckley. The cist was rectangular in plan, with its long axis running east-north-east/west-south-west. Most of the cist had been disturbed, and the excavation was only able to reveal the pit dug to receive the cist. This measured approximately 0.8m long by 0.5m wide. No further information as to the grave structure was retrievable. The cist contained a crouched inhumation of an adult male (1979:110) and a ribbed bowl. The bowl had been removed from the cist and the burial was severely disturbed. The bones appeared to have been, scooped out of the cist and then replaced. According to original reports, the burial had been crouched. The human remains from this site have not been dated. The typology of the vessel places it in stage 3 of Brindley's (2007, 174-5) scheme of development for Irish bowls, which has been dated to the period c. 1980-1920 BC.’ Date of upload: 13 August 2012