Monknewtown burials discovered
A complete human skeleton, many pieces of pottery and other evidence of ancient burials have been found in an archaeological dig on ground at the back of a large graindryer at Monknewtown, Slane.
The dig, under the direction of archaeologist, David Sweetman, of Trinity, began seven weeks ago and stopped last week for a three months’ break, while diggers return to complete another dig at Knowth.
The reason for the sudden interest at Monknewtown was the planned extension to the plant.
From information to date, it is believed burial mound may be older than the tumuli at Dowth and Newgrange.
Ten local men who worked on the site at Knowth since 1963 came to dig, John Winters, Patrick Walsh, Liam Connor, George Brown, Thomas Dixon, Bernard Heston, Patrick and Michael Smith, John Owens and Patrick Moonan.
The monument, in the townlaud of Monknewtown, consists of an enclosing bank, now mainly destroyed by ploughing, but well preserved along the north side. The bank when complete was about 10 metres wide at the base and about 1.50 metres high at its highest point, so that it was wide and low originally.
When complete it would have enclosed an area about 90 metres in diameter, the area enclosed being roughly circular. A section about two metres wide was cut through the existing north segment of the bank. This section revealed the original ground level, and showed that the bank was constructed of materials scooped out, to about a depth of a metre and a half, from the enclosed area.
The section also showed that there was no existing fosse outside the bank, thus indicating that the site was not defensive in the accepted sense.
The first area opened up in the interior was the centre of the site, and nothing of interest was found here. The next area investigated was just inside the bank at the north-east sector of the site. This area produced a scattering of charcoal, a few fireplaces and a small amount of late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age pottery (about 4,000 years old).
An area varying from between 12 and 16 metres wide, running inside the entire length of the existing bank, was then opened up. In this area fourteen burials were found which did not conform to any set pattern.
The most interesting discovery was a Carrowkeel bowl (pottery which is normally only found in passage grave tombs like Newgrange), which contained a cremation and was set directly on the gravels against the edge of the bank. Most of the burials were of a simple pit type and contained cremations, but only one contained pottery — a very crude bucketshaped vessel, which was found standing upright in a deep pit and contained a cremation burial.
Some of the burial structures were quite elaborate in themselves; one consisted of a pit with a drystone wall lining and a capstone, while another consisted ot a basketshaped stone setting — the stones being about/20 to 30 cms. wide and a metre high. The diameter of the, entire setting was 55 cms., and it contained a cremation. Two of the burials had upright marking stones like head-stones.
When the south-west section of the site was investigated, a large hearth was discovered, set down in a boat-shaped cutting in the gravels. (Several post holes conforming to the dugout shape in the gravels were found between the hearth and the edge of the cut-down in the gravel. The area around the hearth had a black deposit 50 cms. deep and contained about 4,000 sherds of late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age pottery.
This portion of the site was obviously an intensively occupied area and afforded aipermanent habitation for people who were using mainly Beaker pottery around the year 2000 B.C.
Very close to this habitation area was found a small fosse, which enclosed a circular area, and in the centre of this enclosed area was found a small pit burial containing very fragmentary remains of a crude type of pot with a cremation.
The excavation at Monknewtown lasted for four months, and it produced some remarkable finds, the most spectacular being the Carrowkeel Bowl containing the cremation. This was the first monument of its type to be excavated in Ireland.
It appears from the excaivation that it was a type of burial enclosure which must have close parallels to stone circles like those found at Grange, Co. Limerick.
About six of these monuments exist in the Boyne Valley area, and the excavation of this one at Monknewtown adds considerably to our knowledge of the late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age period.