Flat cemetery in Ballybrennan

The National Museum of Ireland recorded that ‘in August 1940 the first of several burials discovered in a sandpit at Ballybrennan, Co. Westmeath, was reported to the NMI. This grave was a small cist burial (referred to as cist 1 in the original report) that contained the remains of a child of about two years. In February another grave was reported. This was also a small cist (referred to as cist 2 in the original report), containing an inhumation of an adult female (mistakenly reported as an adolescent previously, see Buckley, below, grave 2). Animal bones representing an ox and a pond found in the soil in the vicinity of the cists, but it is not clear whether these can be d associated with either of the cists. Shells of a number of species of common snails we found in cist 2, but their presence there may be fortuitous. There was no pottery found in of these cists. It was reported locally that about twenty years previously an urn had been but had been reburied. These sites, cists 1 and 2, were published by Ellen Prendergast (1945). Subsequently, in January 1946, a third short cist (this report, grave 3) containing an inhumation and a bowl was discovered in the same sandpit on the lands of the Boyd-Rochfort family at Middleton Park, Castletown Geoghegan. The NMI was informed of the find by the Garda Síochána at Castletown Geoghegan. The cist (grave 3) was found in the face of the sandpit at a depth of 0.4m below ground level, approximately 6.5m from where one of the cists (cist 2) was discovered the previous year. Work was suspended on the site pending a visit from the NMI. The site was excavated over two days by Dr Joseph Raftery and Ellen Prendergast. Two years later, in early March 1948, a fourth cist (this report, grave 4) was discovered at Ballybrennan after the collapse of one of the sides of the gravel pit and was investigated by P.J. Hartnett. The human remains from cists 1-2 and grave 3 were examined by Dr R.G. Inkster, Trinity College, Dublin, and the bones from grave 4 were examined by Professor E.J. Keenan, University College, Dublin. This report is based on Prendergast's and Hartnett's respective accounts of their excavations of graves 3 and 4. For the purposes of this report, the human remains from cist 2 and graves 3 and 4 were re-examined by Laureen Buckley. The site was in the townland of Ballybrennan, south Co. Westmeath, just 2km south of Castletown Geoghegan. It is a small esker running east/west, the south side of which was being exploited for sand and gravel. The cists were found at an altitude of 90—100m above sea level. The area around Castletown Geoghegan has produced many early Bronze Age cist burials, such as Conranstown, north of the town, and Benalbit and Derryroe, a few kilometres south of Ballybrennan. In 1989 a number of inhumation burials were also discovered in Ballybrennan’ (Cahill and Sikora 2011, vol. 1, 484-5). According to the National Museum of Ireland that 'over a period of time, burials were discovered as quarrying proceeded at this site. It appears to have been a flat cemetery, but owing to the partial nature of the investigations the f extent of the site is not known. A sample of the cremation from grave 3 was submitted for AMS dating and yielded a d of 3660±40 BP, which calibrates to 2190-1926 BC. A sample from the inhumation v dated to 3650±40 BP, which calibrates to 2140-1914 BC. The dates indicate that t inhumation and cremation are roughly contemporary. Brindley (2007, 244, 246) places t tripartite bowl in stage 2 of the development of the bowl tradition pottery sequence, whicf dated to the period 2080-1980 cal. BC. The burial from grave 4 has not been dated. The bipartite vase is similar to those placed in stage 1 of the vase tradition by Brindley (2007, 184-5), which is dated to 2020/1990-19 cal. BC, suggesting that the site continued in use for some time' (Cahill and Sikora 2011, vol. 1, 490). Date of upload: 13 August 2012