Court Tomb

Different forms of court tombs

Creevykeel

Court Tomb Reconstruction
in Ulster History Park

Dual Court Tomb by Boho

Dual Court Tomb from Cohaw

The Court Tomb or Court Cairn ( German "Hofgrab" ) locally also called Horned Cairn (from Scottish-Gaelic Cairn for stone), belongs to the megalithic chamber tombs ( English Chambered Tombs ) of the British Isles . It is found with around 400 specimens mainly in the province of Ulster , i.e. in the north of Ireland or in Northern Ireland . Since 1957, when the Irish Court Tomb was recorded, 64 attachments have been added.

distribution

Their distribution among the Irish counties is as follows: Mayo 36, Sligo 8, Galway 6, Donegal and Cavan 3, Tyrone, Derry and Fermanagh 2, Antrim, Tipperary and Kilkenny 1. Neolithic monuments are an expression of the culture and ideology of Neolithic societies. Their origin and function are considered to be the hallmarks of social development.

The name Court Tomb was introduced in 1960 by the Irish archaeologist Ruaidhrí de Valera . The up to 60 m long systems ( Creevykeel in County Sligo and Farranmacbride in County Donegal ) are also known as horned ( English horned ) Cairns or lobster ( English lobster ) Cairns. Some are shorter than 20 m; a length of about 30 m is the average. The maximum width is approximately half the length. Most appear to be in the early Neolithic , from 3500 BC. Many remained in use until the late Neolithic (2200 BC). About 50 plants were examined.

The guys

There are five primary subtypes ( english open, central, full, dual and transeptal ). You have either outside or centrally located courts ( English courts ). In the majority of cases there is a single farm. The courtyards can be semicircular or oval.

a) is open to the environment and is also referred to as a "half-court" z. B. Browndod , Keel East or Clady Halliday.
b) is closed except for a narrow entrance; ( Fullcourt e.g. Ballyglass , Cloghanmore and Creevykeel and is in the wider, usually eastern, portion of the trapezoidal cairn, although the survey indicates a change in the courtyard which may have been remodeled in a second phase.
c) Stone mounds with galleries and courtyards at both ends are called "dual-court" Cairns ( Boho , Cohaw , Gartnanoul ). Occasionally, the stone mounds of this type are rectangular, but the majority are trapezoidal ( Audleystown ). Aghanaglack is a system with galleries that are slightly inclined to each other and with two chambers on each side (with Cohaw there are five in total).
d) The fourth, rarer variant concerns some unusual systems. At the "Central Court" Cairns, z. B. Magheraghanrush , the courtyard is in the middle of the cairn, the galleries are axially on both sides of the courtyard. The cairn of this type is widest in the middle and tapers towards both ends. The lateral access is in the middle, at the widest point of the oval courtyard.
e) the transeptal form ( Court Tomb by Behy ) is even rarer .

In the north of the province of Munster there are at least four atypical court tombs, which coincided with others in Ireland between 3700 and 3570 BC. Seem to have been used. These systems are classified as North Munster. They are very narrow, with straight courtyard sides at the "courts" and short, stepped cairns. Interestingly, one of the plants, Parknabinnia , shows that shortly after 3000 BC. Chr. The rear chamber was blocked and only the front was used. The courtyards open up the gallery (s) with their chambers. On two courtyards outside the main distribution area of the Court Tombs, small U-shaped stone mounds were found ( Ballynamona Lower and Shanballyedmond ). The Shanballyedmond cairn was completely removed during the excavation and produced interesting results. A funnel-shaped area in front of the gallery and the gallery itself were paved. The cairn was framed with orthostats and dry masonry. A U-shaped arrangement of 34 post holes was found about 2.3 m from the cairn.

hill

A mostly long, often trapezoidal hill made of quarry stone was built over several, mostly (2 in West, 4 in East Ireland - Creggandevesky has 3) chambers (galleries) lying one behind the other. An enclosure surrounds the Cairns and the inner courtyards. The courtyard is delimited on the gallery (s) side by a designed exedra , which mostly consists of orthostats. The orthostats are often particularly high near the entrance to the galleries. Excavations have shown that the spaces between them were filled with intermediate masonry so that the stones looked like panels in a closed wall. Other courtyards, like that of Behy, in County Mayo , were walled with drywall .

gallery

The gallery consists of up to four chambers, which are more symbolically separated from each other. Sometimes a threshold stone lies between two side posts. Instead of a threshold that allows access to the space, sometimes higher slabs, called septal stones, close the space between the posts. The chambers are part of an axial gallery marked by a trilith entrance , accessible from the courtyard (or courtyards). Galleries are closed at the top by horizontally placed panels, by cantilever vaults or a combination of ceiling types. In most cases, this roof is now completely absent, but at Carrowbeagh, County Mayo, it has been preserved. Some plants have side chambers in the gallery (Behy, County Mayo). Cloghanmore has two coaxial parallel galleries. In Deerpark, County Sligo, there are two parallel galleries at one end of the yard and a single one at the other end. An unusually long gallery survived in Moytura, Highwood, County Sligo. At Cloghanmore in Malin More County Donegal there are petroglyphs on two orthostats in the courtyard border , but stylistically they belong to the Iron Age .

Some systems have separate, presumably subsequently built-in side chambers with their own entrances on the long sides of the Cairns (e.g. Annaghmare, Creevekeel, Cregganconroe and Tullyskeherny ). Some are on the outer edge of the cairn, but many are further in and have a short walkway. Some systems have these later side chambers in the courtyard area.

Bone material

According to L. Flanaghan (1998) 36 court tombs were excavated or investigated. In 13 of them there were no bones due to the soil conditions. Only partially identifiable bones were found in the remaining 23. Only five (all in Ulster) had unburned bones. The facilities that provided information, such as Clontygora, contained burned bones from an adult, while an adult's bone was found in Carrick East . In Ballyreagh, County Fermanagh , a woman between the ages of 25 and 35 was recognized, while in Aghnaskeagh , County Louth , the burned bones were identified as those of a woman and a girl.

Scotland

The Scottish Clyde Tombs (e.g. Cairnholy I and II, at Newton Stewart ) are approximate equivalents of the Irish Court Tombs. The shape, however, has ancestors in England in the timber chamber of Haddenham in Cambridgeshire , where the moor preserved a wooden chamber with five intact skeletons, but also with the pile construction of the long hill of Street House in Yorkshire . Clyde Tombs have a much higher exedra than Court Tombs . Scottish users generally preferred body burial, while in Ireland cremation was common.

literature

Rodney Castleden: The Stonehenge people. An exploration of life in Neolithic Britain 4700-2000 BC. Routledge, London et al. 1987, ISBN 0-7102-0968-1 .
Oliver Davis, Emyr E. Evans: The Horned Cairns of Ulster. In: Ulster Journal of Archeology. 3rd Series, Vol. 6, 1943, pp. 7-23, JSTOR 20566422 .
Elizabeth Shee Twohig: Irish Megalithic tombs (= Shire Archeology. 63). Shire, Princes Risborough 1990, ISBN 0-7478-0094-4 .
Rick J. Schulting, Eileen Murphy, Carleton Jones, Graeme Warren: New dates from the north and a proposed chronology for Irish court tombs In: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archeology, Culture, History, Literature Vol. 112C (2012), Pp. 1-60
Jürgen E. Walkowitz: The megalithic syndrome. European cult sites of the Stone Age (= contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. Vol. 36). Beier & Beran, Langenweißbach 2003, ISBN 3-930036-70-3 .

Individual evidence

↑ An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Caernarvonshire. Volume 3: West. The Cantref of Lleyn. Together with the General Survey. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London et al. 1964.
^ Johannes Müller : Neolithic Monuments and Neolithic Societies. In: Hans J. Beier , Erich Claßen , Thomas Doppler, Britta Ramminger (eds.): Neolithic monuments and neolithic societies. Contributions from the meeting of the Neolithic Working Group during the annual meeting of the North-West German Association for Ancient Research in Schleswig, 9. – 10. October 2007 (= Varia neolithica. 6 = contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. 56). Beier & Beran, Langenweissbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-941171-28-2 , pp. 7–16, here p. 15.
^ Carlton Jones: The north Munster atypical court tombs of western Ireland - Social dynamics, regional trajectories and responses to distant events over the course of the Neolithic. In: Johannes Müller, Martin Hinz, Maria Wunderlich (Hrsg.): Megaliths - Societies - Landscapes. Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation in Neolithic Europe. Proceedings of the international conference in Kiel, June 16-20, 2015 . Habelt, Bonn 2019, pp. 983-1004.
↑ The older term Clyde-Carlingford is based on the erroneous assumption of Vere Gordon Childe and Stuart Pigott who equate Northern Irish Court Tombs with the Scottish Clyde Tombs. Investigations by J. Scott and Ruaidhri de Valera in Ireland made it clear, however, that one cannot speak of a Carlingford variant.

Web links

Description and pictures (last accessed on July 17, 2016)

[1] An Inventory of the Ancient Monuments in Caernarvonshire. Volume 3: West. The Cantref of Lleyn. Together with the General Survey. Her Majesty's Stationery Office, London et al. 1964.

[2] Johannes Müller : Neolithic Monuments and Neolithic Societies. In: Hans J. Beier , Erich Claßen , Thomas Doppler, Britta Ramminger (eds.): Neolithic monuments and neolithic societies. Contributions from the meeting of the Neolithic Working Group during the annual meeting of the North-West German Association for Ancient Research in Schleswig, 9. – 10. October 2007 (= Varia neolithica. 6 = contributions to the prehistory and early history of Central Europe. 56). Beier & Beran, Langenweissbach 2009, ISBN 978-3-941171-28-2 , pp. 7–16, here p. 15.

[3] Carlton Jones: The north Munster atypical court tombs of western Ireland - Social dynamics, regional trajectories and responses to distant events over the course of the Neolithic. In: Johannes Müller, Martin Hinz, Maria Wunderlich (Hrsg.): Megaliths - Societies - Landscapes. Early Monumentality and Social Differentiation in Neolithic Europe. Proceedings of the international conference in Kiel, June 16-20, 2015 . Habelt, Bonn 2019, pp. 983-1004.

[4] The older term Clyde-Carlingford is based on the erroneous assumption of Vere Gordon Childe and Stuart Pigott who equate Northern Irish Court Tombs with the Scottish Clyde Tombs. Investigations by J. Scott and Ruaidhri de Valera in Ireland made it clear, however, that one cannot speak of a Carlingford variant.