Cairn — burial cairn in Lug

Not visible at ground level. Excavation of a destroyed cairn (diam. 19.8m; H 1.2m) enclosed by a low bank which revealed seven cist burials and two pit burials of inhumations and cremations (Duignan 1936, 191-2). A central cist contained a crouched female skeleton with upright food vessel beside the head. A second undisturbed cist contained the cremated remains of a child and adult with no grave goods. Five other cists were discovered, two containing inhumations without pottery, two others containing cremation burials with pottery and one cist burial containing no human remains with evidence of a crushed food vessel. Two pit burials containing cremated bones and charcoal were found along the edge of the cairn (Waddell 1990, 129-30). The National Museum of Ireland recorded that 'in the early 1900s a number of short cists were discovered in a cairn at Lug, near Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Owing to the fact that the site was to be put under cultivation for the first time, the cairn was in the process of being levelled by the landowner, Mr Michael Geoghegan. The site appears to have consisted of a large cairn of stones, as the owner describes removing over 100 cartloads of stone. During the removal of stones from the mound, the capstones of four cists were discovered. Two of the capstones were removed at this stage so as not to obstruct the plough. Subsequently, in 1934, while preparing for the coming season's crop, the owner discovered two more cists. These were later examined by Revd Professor William Moran of Maynooth College,270 who reported the site to Dr Adolf Mahr and to the members of the Harvard Expedition who had been excavating in Ireland at the time. A rescue excavation under the Minor Relief Scheme was undertaken by Michael V. Duignan, beginning in the spring of 1935. Work was temporarily halted to avoid the destruction of crops and resumed in October 1935. This report is based on Duignan's account of the excavation. It is clear from the report that the disturbance that took place in the early 1900s had caused considerable damage to the contents of the cists from which the capstones had been removed at that time. In the course of the excavation seven cists (referred to by Duignan as cists I—VII) and two features (called `fire sites') containing quantities of burnt bone, two post-holes and a charcoal spread were discovered. In a summary account in the NMI archive Duignan says that `the site was so levelled in tillage operations as to be almost indiscernible. Little reliable information as to the original diameters and height of the cairn [survived]. It would appear to have been [a] flat cairn roughly circular, some 60 feet [8.2m] in diameter and some 4 feet [1 .2m] high. It was composed of various sized stones, and before disturbance was covered with a layer of soil in which grew a number of whitethorn trees. In 1975 another cist (grave 10 in this report), some 400m south of the cairn site, containing a cremation and a vessel was reported to the NMI. This had apparently been found twenty years previously but had not been reported. The site was visited by Dr Joseph Raftery. As Dr Raftery's report is not on file, this report is based on an account by the Offaly Historical Society. The site was in the townland of Lug, north Co. Offaly, 2km south of the border with County Westmeath.273 At the time of Duignan's investigation the site had the appearance of a flat-topped mound approximately 18-20m in diameter. To the south and south-west of the site the field sloped away naturally to a wide hollow, making it difficult to see the limit of the cairn above ground. The site lay at an altitude of 60-70m above sea level. Owing to the disturbed nature of the site, it was not possible to undertake an excavation of the whole area. A trench 20.1m long by 1.2m wide was cut on an east/west axis across the mound at right angles to the nearest edge of the cultivated area. A north/south trench was also cut, dividing the site into four quadrants (I—IV), probably during the second season of excavation. The stratigraphy of the mound was found to be as follows: the lowest layer of the cairn consisted of a substantial gravel layer (approximately 0.48m thick) overlain by yellow subsoil, which was in turn superseded by a layer of humus to the present ground level. A large post-hole measuring 0.31m in diameter by 0.46m deep was discovered at the north-eastern side of the cairn. A second large post-hole, 0.2-0.22m in diameter and 0.15m deep, was found at the south-eastern edge of the cairn. Two `fire sites containing quantities of burnt bones' were also noted in one of the documents. One of these was on the south-eastern side of the cairn south of grave 3. This grave was considered by Duignan to be the primary burial as it appeared to be centrally placed in the cairn' (Cahill and Sikora 2011, 393-4). The National Museum of Ireland concluded that 'in all, seven cists and two deposits of cremated bone were discovered. The total number of individuals from the burials recovered from this site was fifteen, twelve adults and three infants, with at least five adults being female and two being male. The most remarkable pathological discovery was the multiple myeloma of the adult female in the central burial, grave 3. The vessel discovered in grave I has not been located and is not recorded, but three other vessels were recovered. These are a ribbed bowl from grave 3 and sherds from two anomalous vessels from graves 6 and 7 and grave 9. A sample of the human remains from grave 3 was submitted for AMS dating and yielded a date of 3575±40 BP, which calibrates to 2032-1775 BC. The vessel belongs to Brindley's stage 3 in the development of the bowl tradition, dated to 1980-1930/20 cal. BC. This single date does not provide sufficient evidence to date the period during which this site was being used for burial purposes, but it does give an indication. Four of the seven cists produced some pottery but only the ribbed bowl from grave 3 can be categorised. Three cists produced no pottery or other grave goods Duignan remarked on the level of disturbance of some of the graves but it is not known whether this was due entirely to the recent agricultural activity at the site or to earlier damage. It may be that some of the graves had been robbed in the past. Nevertheless, as has been remarked above, a high percentage of early Bronze Age burials (42% in this corpus) were not accompanied by pottery vessels. It is not possible to argue that earlier disturbance or robbing is the sole cause, as in many cases the cists appear to have remained undisturbed until their accidental discovery. The fossil noted above is a good specimen in two fragments of an orthoconic (i.e. straight cone shape) nautiloid c. 7cm in length (Matthew Parkes, Natural History Division, NMI, pers. comm.). Unfortunately it is not clear from the records whether this is a deliberate inclusion in the fire site in the south-eastern quadrant of the site or an accidental recovery. It is not burnt' (Cahill and Sikora 2011 vol. 1, 401). The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Offaly' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 1997). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 13 August 2012