Poulawack Cairn
by Martina Fagan
Title
Poulawack Cairn
Artist
Martina Fagan
Medium
Photograph - Photograph
Description
Poulawack Cairn Co Clare Ireland is an early bronze age (c. 1900 B.C.) cairn. Before excavation, this round cairn measured 20.75m N/S and 21.25m E/W. Under it were found two concentric kerbs or revetments. 10 graves were found within the revetments. The cairn material which had consisted in the main of Limestone slabs had been carefully laid and it was evident in a change in orientation in the stones that a considerable part of the upper levels of the cairn had been disturbed in the course of a secondary intrusion of a number of cist graves. A hollow scraper, a boar's tusk, an oyster shell, and some bronze-age potscherds accompanied the burials.
The multiple cist cairn at Poulawack in the south-central Burren is one of the best examples of the burial structure which succeeded the Megalithic tombs of the Neolithic. Excavated by a Harvard team in 1935, the remains of sixteen people interred in ten separate graves were found here, very few of which showed signs of cremation, indicating Bronze Age origin, a period when unburnt burials were quite common. Radiocarbon dating revealed that there were three main phases of activity: the mid-fourth, early second and late second millennia BC. Much of the land in this area is private property so great care must be taken and the landowners wishes and rights must be respected.
MCN:CD0AB-E6357-5E16D
Uploaded
May 14th, 2011
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