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| Lough Arrow viewed from Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery |
Carrowkeel Neolithic or
New Stone Age passage tomb cemetery is situated in south County Sligo, near the
village of Castlebaldwin. The tombs are between
5400 and 5100 years old (3400 to 3100 BC), and predate the Pyramids of Egypt's
by 500-800 years. Carrowkeel is one of four major passage tomb cemeteries in
Ireland (the other three are Brú na Bóinne, Lough Crew, and Carrowmore). A
total of 14 tombs have been recorded in this cemetery. Six more passage tombs
are located close by in what archaeologists call the Keshcorran complex.
A passage tomb consists
of a narrow stone-lined passage leading to a chamber. Other smaller chambers
may open off the main chamber. The passage and chambers are roofed with capstones
but larger chambers tend to be corbelled. A round cairn covers the actual tomb
and the cairn is usually surrounded by kerbstones.
The mountain range
containing Carrowkeel Cemetery is called the Bricklieve Mountains, which means
the speckled mountains in Irish. This may refer to their appearance when more
quartz rock survived on the outside of the cairns, causing them to sparkle in
the sun. The Carrowkeel cairns are built on hilltops at altitudes between 240
and 360 meters.
A common feature of Irish
cairns is that the passage of one monument is frequently oriented to another
prominent cairn, as well as the rising or setting position of the sun and moon.
This occurs at several of the Carrowkeel cairns. For example, Cairn B opens towards Knocknarea and ruined
Cairn M is oriented to Kesh Cairn. The tombs were largely intact when
rediscovered and hurriedly excavated in 1911. The cairns were designated at
this time by letters and this naming convention remains today.
Archaeologists do not
know what ritual function, in addition to acting as burial places for the dead,
the passage tombs served for these cultures. A reverence for the sun is
suggested by the alignment of many of the passages to the rising or setting of
the sun on yearly solstice or equinox events.
The Cairns
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| Three Cairns at Carrowkeel Photo: bettlebrox - www.flickr.com |
Cairn B is 22 metres in
diameter, making it one of the larger cairns in the Bricklieve group. The
passage is about 3 metres long and widens to a small chamber. The entrance is
high up in the body of the cairn. In 2010 a local archaeologist discovered the
first panel of megalithic art recorded at Carrowkeel consisting of two small
spirals.
Cairn F is the largest
and most important of the cairns at Carrowkeel. It has a diameter of 26 metres
and probably stood 8 - 10 metres high. The
cairn contains a very large well-built chamber formed from massive squared
limestone slabs with five compartments, two at each side and an end recess. The
passage is about 8m long.
Cairn G is the best
preserved of the Carrowkeel monuments and is a fine example of a cruciform
Irish Passage Cairn. It is a classic Irish passage tomb, consisting of a short
passage leading to a central chamber with three equally spaced side chambers.
The most interesting feature of this tomb is the roofbox situated above the
entrance. The sun enters the chamber
through the roofbox at sunset around the summer solstice and illuminates the
back of the chamber. The only other known roofbox was discovered at Newgrange .
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| Cairn G showing roofbox |
Carrowkeel Cairn G is
estimated to be 700 years older than Newgrange and is smaller and less
sophisticated. The passage is two meters long compared with nineteen meters at
Newgrange.
Cairn K was also
constructed with the classic cruciform shaped chamber and has an intact
dry-stone corbelled roof. The 7 metre-long passage is orientated to Queen
Maeve's Cairn on the top of Knocknarea. It has a diameter of about 21 meters,
is some 6 meters high, and is surrounded by a thick layer of bog, which has
covered any kerbstones. The items found during the excavation of Cairn K in 1911 were typical of the
finds in the other cairns: pieces of the Neolithic pottery, known as Carrowkeel
Ware since that time; cremated human remains, chalk balls, antler pins and
pendants.
Hut Sites
Nearby, at Mullaghfarna,
archaeologists have identified more than 150 small stone lined hollows with
entrance features which are believed to be Neolithic huts or enclosures. Their circular stone foundations, with
diameters ranging from 8 m to 18 m, still mark the spots where the tent-like
huts stood. These hut sites may date from the third millennium BC. In 2003,
trial excavations at three of the sites produced finds from the
Neolithic/Bronze Age including: chert
scrapers, a flint knife, fragments of cremated bone, decorated pottery and
charcoal. Similar objects were discovered during the excavation of hut sites on
Knocknarea in 2000.
This prehistoric village
is likely to have been connected to the Carrowkeel cairns and may have housed
the workers who built the passage tombs, or perhaps their descendants, who attended
some ancient ritual there.
Conclusion
The earliest evidence we
have for human occupation in Ireland dates from around 8000 BC. For the next
4000 years our ancestors survived by hunting, fishing and gathering wild
plants. The gradual introduction of farming to Ireland around 4000 BC brought
domesticated cereals and animals from Britain and the European mainland.
Shortly after this time, people began to build megalithic tombs such as those
at Carrowkeel, Carrowmore, Kesh and Knocknarea.
All told, there are 27 passage
tomb monuments in the Carrowkeel-Keshcorran Complex, a total that includes
three monuments located nearby but not in the Bricklieve Mountains. Archaeologists
do not know what ritual function these passage tombs served, in addition to
acting as burial places for the dead, for these cultures. The alignment of many
of the passages to the rising or setting of the sun on yearly solstice or
equinox suggests reverence to the sun. The presence of items not normally
associated with the everyday life of these people and also the discovery of
prehistoric art also point to a ritual function for these sites.
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