What is recorded here

No visible marker remains on the Monasterboice ground, but a short cist lay about a metre below the smaller church floor when it was opened in 1878. Inside were a Cordoned Urn and a porcellanite axe, things bright or sharp enough to remember after death. Perhaps a person lived there long enough to be named, loved, buried and forgotten by the living. The chamber does not need a grand story; it keeps the sudden fact that someone mattered enough to be set aside with a good vessel and a useful blade.

A short cist, containing a Cordoned Urn and porcellanite axe, was discovered in 1878 c. 1m below the floor level of smaller church (LH021-062003-) at Monasterboice (Hasse 1892, 145-50, fig. 1; CLAJ 1931, 332-4). The above description is derived from both the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1986) and the 'Archaeological Survey of County Louth' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1991). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload: 17 July 2007

Early Christian cist burial, 5th–7th century AD. The find is significant for its association with the ecclesiastical site of Monasterboice and for containing a Cordoned Urn, a key indicator of early Christian funerary practices in Ireland.

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