Laheen Pit Burial

Located on a slight gravel ridge in farmland. This marks the approximate location of a Bronze Age pit-burial uncovered in 1964 in a tillage field, at a depth of c. 10cm below surface. It consisted of a circular pit (diam. 0.5m; D 0.35m) sealed at top by a stone slab (L 0.54m; Wth 0.46m; T 0.06m). In the base of the pit, a pottery urn was inverted over a pile of cremated bone. A polished stone mace-head lay adjacent to the urn on the SE side of the pit. The urn had collapsed and shattered in antiquity. It was identified as a Cordoned Urn, decorated with raised bands or cordons, with bands of zig-zag and horizontal twisted cord impressions on the neck and bevelled rim. Two decorated sherds of a smaller pot, possible a Food Vessel were also found. The highly polished and well-made stone mace-head has a splayed cutting edge, and an hour-glass-shaped central perforation, which would have held the shaft. A concave facet, defined on its outer edge by a well-defined groove, encloses the top of the central perforation on the two narrow faces of the axe (Ó Ríordáin 1967, 39-44). In the 1960's several flint blades and flakes were recovered from the surface of the tillage field, suggesting prehistoric settlement in the area (Lucas 1963, 119; Lucas 1967, 4-5). In 1966 a cist (DG103-065----), possibly also of Bronze Age date, was found c. 180 to S. There is a standing stone (DG103-063----) close by. Compiled by: Jane O'Shaughnessy Date of revised upload: 6 December 2017