What is recorded here

In 1881, a plough tore open two parallel cists in Luggacurren, revealing rectangular chambers no larger than a child’s bed. One held a bowl and unburnt bones; the other split into double compartments beneath stacked capstones, also yielding a bowl and possible faience beads. Bronze bracelets lay beside them, suggesting these were not random discard pits but careful graves for people who valued ornament and company in death. The soil swallowed them again, but the dimensions and contents still trace the shape of that lost attention.

Two short cists, 3m apart and parallel to each other were discovered in 1881 during ploughing operations. One was a rectangular slab-built cist (L c. 1-1m, Wth c. 0.48m, D c. 0.48m) containing a bowl and unburnt skeletal remains. The second was a double cist the larger compartment (L 0.96m, W.0.56m, D 0.53m) of which was seperated from the smaller (L 0.53m, Wth 0.56m, D 0.53m) by en endstone. It was covered by two capstones one placed above the other. The larger cist contained a bowl and both may have contained unburnt bones. Grave goods found in the bowls included two possible faience beads; two bronze bracelets were also found (Waddell 1990, 104-5). 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

Rectangular slab-built cists, likely dating to the Early Christian or Early Medieval period, used for inhumation burial. Their discovery provides insight into local burial practices and funerary goods in rural Ireland.

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