Court Tomb of Ballyalton
The Court Tomb of Ballyalton, lying in a thorn thicket, is located on a rock outcrop near Ballyalton ( Irish Baile Altúin ), about 4.0 km east of Downpatrick , in County Down , Northern Ireland . Court Tombs are among the megalithic chamber tombs ( English chambered tombs ) of the British Isles . They are found in around 400 specimens almost exclusively in the north of Ireland or in Northern Ireland.
Six stones have been preserved from the eastern courtyard. Two of them are the portal stones, a two-chamber gallery from which many stones survived, the maximum height of which is about 1.0 m.
The excavation in 1933 revealed the fragmentary bones of at least seven individuals and fragments of at least 20 ornate vessels. The term "Ballyalton Ware" or Ballaalton Bowls is applied to similar vessels from other locations. Numerous flints have been found, including a diamond-shaped arrowhead , several plano-convex knives, and some hollow scrapers. Broken flint axes were found in the standing holes of two stones in the court .
Nearby is Loughmoney's Tomb Portal
literature
- Frances Lynch: Megalithic Tombs and Long Barrows in Britain (= Shire Archeology. 73). Shire Publications, Princes Risborough 1997, ISBN 0-7478-0341-2 .
- Elizabeth Shee Twohig: Irish Megalithic Tombs (= Shire Archeology. 63). Shire Publications, 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
Web links
Coordinates: 54 ° 19 ′ 43.9 " N , 5 ° 38 ′ 46.4" W.