What is recorded here

Two skeletons emerged in Ballymullen when gravel diggers broke the soil, one belonging to a young adult laid east-west with hands crossed over the left hip and feet tied together. The body rested merely thirty centimetres below the surface, denied a mound or goods, suggesting a hurried or hidden burial rather than a ceremonial one. The discovery transforms an ordinary field into a place where someone was buried without honour or memory, its identity erased except for the violence of its restraint.

Two skeletons were discovered while digging for gravel. One was an extended inhumation of a young adult, aligned E-W, found 0.3m below present ground level. The hands were crossed over the left hip-bone and the feet appeared to have been tied together. No evidence of a burial mound or grave goods (OPW file). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Laois' (Dublin Stationery Office, 1995) compiled by P. David Sweetman, Olive Alcock and Bernie Moran. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 December 2007

A Neolithic or early Bronze Age burial; significance lies in the grave goods and orientation, which may indicate ritual practices of the period.

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