What is recorded here

Inside the western portico of the Labbacallee wedge tomb, slabs formed a small chamber holding unburnt bones and fragments of a food vessel. The dead had eaten before leaving, or someone had fed them afterward. Two empty sockets further north suggest a second chamber, doubling the mystery rather than solving it.

Found during excavation (Leask and Price 1936, 77-101) of portico area of wedge tomb (CO027-086---). 'At the western end of the monument ...we found an arrangment of slabs which appeared to form a cist' (ibid. 90). Some unburnt bones and two 'very small pieces of what appeared to be a food vessel' (ibid.) were recovered; 'unclassifiable' according to O'Ríordáin and Wadell (1993, 94). Two apparent slab sockets were noted c. 2m further N, one of which contained 'a fragment of the rim of a decorated pot' (Leask and Price 1936, 90), leading the excavators to speculate that this may have been a second cist. The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009

Cist in Labbacallee is a Neolithic or early Bronze Age stone cist associated with a wedge tomb. Its presence indicates secondary burial activity or ritual use within the wider funerary complex.

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