What is recorded here

Five thousand years of rain and root and forgetting pressed three children into ash before a single stone marked the marsh. One small body went into an upside-down urn, as if the sky itself had opened to receive what the earth would not hold. The other two lay naked in circular holes, their bones scattered like seeds thrown by a hand that never looked back. They were not buried so much as released, their shapes broken into fragments that could drift anywhere the wind carried them.

Three cremation burials discovered during the development of playing pitches at Dundalk Institute of Technology (Excavation Licence No. 02E0235 (area 9)). Burial 1 was placed in an inverted urn in a pit and contained 1395 bone fragments representing the token remains of a child aged 3-5 years. The bone yielded a radiocarbon date of 3150±35 BP. Burial 2 was in a circular pit and contained 1256 bone fragments representing the remains of a child aged 8–12 years. The bone yielded a radiocarbon date of 3240±35 BP. Burial 3 was also placed directly in a pit which contained 818 bone fragments representing an infant aged under 3 years. The bone of this burial yielded a radiocarbon date of 3290±40 BP. (Mossop 2002, 23-4 and 45; O' Hara 2004, 378) References: Mossop, M. 2002 Archaeological monitoring and investigations, Dundalk Institute of Technology, County Louth. Unpublished archaeological report. National Monuments Section, Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Dublin Mossop, M. 2004 Marshes Upper, Dundalk. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 375-8 (No. 1335). Bray. Wordwell. O. Hara, R. 2004 Area 8, Marshes Upper, Dundalk. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 379 (No. 1339). Bray. Wordwell. Compiled by: Claire Breen Date of upload: 2 December 2011

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