Monday, August 31, 2020

Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery Revisited

 

Listoghil
Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery

More than 6,000 years ago, the Stone Age peoples of Western Europe began to build stone monuments over their dead as tombs and ceremonial places. This was the beginning of what has become known as the megalithic tradition of the Neolithic period. In 2013, I wrote a blog post about Carrowmore Megalithic Cemetery, Co. Sligo in Ireland. This is one of four major passage tomb cemeteries in Ireland, along with Carrowkeel, Brú na Bóinne and Loughcrew.

 Approximately 60 such monuments are recorded in the complex, but many others were destroyed by quarrying and agricultural activities over the past two centuries. In 2019 archaeologists from IT Sligo, led by Dr. Marion Dowd and Dr. James Bonsal, investigated one of the less known monuments, classified in the Sites and Monuments Record as a barrow. They set out to establish the date and nature of the monument and its relationship to passage tombs within the complex.

Listoghil and Meascán Mhéabha

The largest monument in the cemetery is a cairn known as Listoghil. This monument is also notable for being the only one at the site that is known to have been decorated with megalithic art. It is also the only tomb in the cemetery where both cremations and inhumations have been found although cremation was the norm.

Inner Chamber
Listoghil

Archaeologists have found that the rest of the tombs were arranged in a roughly oval shape around Listoghil, suggesting that this may have been the focal point of the cemetery. Overlooking the complex to the west, is Knocknarea Mountain on the summit of which is the passage tomb of Meascán Mhéabha, otherwise known as Queen Maeve’s Grave. (Photo)

Latest Investigation

The monument investigated consists of a broad, shallow ditch, circular in plan, with an overall external diameter of approximately 20m. The ditch is 2.9m wide at the top and 0.8m deep. A layer of densely packed stones formed the base along the north-eastern side. There was no evidence of a bank either inside or outside the ditch. The excavation revealed an inner circular, area approximately 8m in diameter, that consisted of several overlapping deposits of stones.

The earlier identification of the monument as a Bronze Age or Iron Age barrow has been revised in view of the central circular deposit of stones and the absence of a bank. Various ideas about what the monument represented were discounted based on the excavation results and geophysical information. However, archaeologists concluded that it was not a barrow and was almost certainly prehistoric in date. Whilst the precise purpose of the monument remains unclear it was probably ritual/funerary in nature.

Artefacts

The excavation did not produce any animal bone, human bone, or charcoal fragments. Archaeologists found many prehistoric tools known as cherts which were crucial to prehistoric societies. For example, they would have been used for a variety of tasks, such as making baskets, working bones, scraping hides and in the preparation of food. This area outside the monument produced over 200 finds of post-medieval and modern date, including shards of glass, potsherds, and clay pipe fragments.

Dating Evidence

Archaeologists believe that different type of lithics and their condition represented multiple events and time periods possibly from the Mesolithic through to the Bronze Age. Similar material has been recovered from other sites in the Carrowmore complex. The chert convex scrapers are like those found at Neolithic hut sites on Knocknarea Mountain.

It was not possible to carry out radiocarbon dating due to the lack of suitable organic material. Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating, which calculates when a sediment was last exposed to sunlight, produced a date of 4050–2850 BC.

Conclusion

In the past, the focus of archaeological research at Carrowmore has been on the passage tombs. This recent work has produced a Neolithic date for what is an unclassified monument located at the centre of an important megalithic cemetery. The lithics indicate multiple periods of activity at the monument during the Neolithic, and possibly also the Bronze Age. Researchers acknowledge that the ditch may not be contemporaneous with the central stony area.

Earlier work by Stefan Bergh and Robert Hensey’s produced 25 dates from monuments known as Carrowmore 3 and 55a, revealing the Middle Neolithic as the principal period of use of these two monuments. The OSL date from this excavation is consistent with this period.

Archaeologists believe that the central location of the Neolithic circular ditched monument at Carrowmore suggests that it was a site of significance within this highly ritualised funerary landscape. It is one of a small number of monuments on the elevated plateau which also commands impressive views of the huge passage tombs of Listoghil and Meascán Mhéabha.

The excavation failed to find evidence of a boulder circle or a central structure such as a dolmen or cist. Several aspects of the site bear a resemblance to features of the passage tombs excavated by Burenhult. Deposits of densely packed stone were noted at several passage tombs, occurring between the outer circle of boulders and the central chamber.

For more information see:

The Carrowmore Conundrum Author(s): Marion Dowd and James Bonsall Source: Archaeology Ireland. Vol. 34, No. 1 (Spring 2020), pp. 21-25 Published by: Wordwell Ltd.

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7447788106874258351/5663729884492012271

https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/mysterious-monument-carrowmore-0012143

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dwfsrfvKo0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZYdtDUH-0Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pn3PNFkRqJE