Ballinagore stone boxes
The Ballinagore stone boxes are located on a gentle southeast slope west of the Gold Mine River near Aughrim in County Wicklow , Ireland . While clearing field fences, a rectangular stone box was discovered and a small excavation was carried out by Mary Cahill. She found an early Bronze Age vessel and an ax and knife made of flint . No human remains were found in the box.
While stone boxes from the Early Bronze Age are often discovered, their surroundings are not always explored. The Ballinagore excavation revealed a cluster of stone boxes and remains. The excavation that Barra Ó Donnabháin carried out between 1994 and 1995 uncovered the remains of a part of a low mound of earth and stone that had survived below the field boundary. The mound was immediately north and east of the box and may have originally covered it. A stone arch was found inside the mound containing a second, small, rectangular box that contained burned human bones but had been disturbed. About 2.0 m north of the first box, an undisturbed polygonal box was found that contained an inverted collar urn with burned human bones. The box was filled with charcoal after the urn was brought in. Two more collar urns were found in pits next to these two boxes. One was placed over a cremation and the second, which contained burnt bones, lay on its side in a coal-filled pit. A pit with a fire embankment, post holes and a complex of pits with burnt hazel and willow branches were found next to the first box. The mine complex was concentrated in the area southeast of box 1 and was originally covered by a mound that appeared to have largely been eroded in the 19th century. About 100 pieces of Neolithic pottery were found in the area of the low hill, belonging to six bowls. Many shards come from the pit of box 1.
To the west of the low hill, three ring moats have been found in an arch. Two of them were incomplete while one was round. All were 5.0 to 6.0 m in diameter and had shallow U-shaped trenches. The round one was the northernmost of the three and contained another box in the middle. It contained burned human bones and a poorly crafted jar. In the central ring trench was a small pit with charcoal and fragments of burned human bones. The southernmost of the moats has not been fully excavated. A pit in the moat was 1.0 m deep and contained charcoal and human bones. A barbed arrowhead was also found in it. The third ring trench was accidentally disrupted after the excavation. The landowner uncovered a pit with a cremation and container.
About 16 m east of the low hill, a V-shaped trench about 3.0 m wide and 2.0 m deep was found. There was no evidence of the date or function of the trench and its relationship to the burial ground.
See also
literature
- B. Ó Donnabháin: Ballinagore In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 1995. Wordwell Ltd, Bray.
Web links