Carrowmore 56

Circle 56 at Carrowmore sits on the edge of the low ridge to the south of the Visitor Centre, right beside and paired with the much larger Circle 57. The monument is composed of a low circular earthen platform or tertre surrounded by a ring of small to medium sized boulders, slightly under ten meters in diameter. The twelve boulders which form the ring or kerb are much smaller than the massive boulders used to construct Circle 57. The monument was excavated by Dr. Göran Burenhult and his team of Swedish archaeologists in 1994 and 1995.

One of the boulders on the southwest side of the ring has been displaced, a feature which occurs at several other Carrowmore circles, which is believed to indicate a bronze age reuse of the monuments. At Circles 26, 36, 56 and 57 a boulder was removed from the circle during the bronze age reuse of the complex.

The strange chamber at Cloverhill and the 'spaced boulder circles' to the north of Carrowmore may also date to this time. Perhaps the bronze age people were breaking the ring and removing chambers to release the spirits and souls of those interred there so the monument could be cleansed and used by the new owners.

Earthen mounds called tertres are a very early form of passage grave found in the Gulf of Morhiban region in Brittany about 6,500 years ago. In the middle of the platform is a paved chamber composed of five stones—the most common form of chamber construction at Carrowmore—with a short passage pointing to the midwinter sunset, somewhat to the left of Listoghil about seventy meters away.

The platform of Circle 56 supports a chamber formed by nine stones. Some tend to describe this as a double or inner and outer chamber, but it appears to be a small five-sided chamber with the remains of a short symbolic passage attached on the southwest side. When George Petrie saw the monument in 1837 the cromleac was perfect, but by 1888 when William Gregory Wood-Martin excavated, the capstone had been lifted and moved to one side, undoubtedly by the local antiquarian, treasure hunter and good friend of Petrie, Roger Walker.

Excavations

From his description it is apparent that the dolmen or cromleac of Carrowmore 56 was in perfect condition when Petrie saw it in 1837. The restoration of the capstone to the chamber using logs and ropes would be a worthy project for the Office of Public Works to undertake, and would greatly enhance the site with a perfect example of a tertre monument on the side and beside the central monument.

The following by William Copeland Borlase is a summary of George Petrie's notes and William Gregory Wood-Martin's excavations, taken from his mammoth Dolmens of Ireland, published in 1897.

Circle No. 56. Situated immediately to the north of the cairn called Listoghil, and about 70 paces from it. "The diameter of this circle is about 36 feet, and it is nearly perfect. The cromleac is quite so." - George Petrie, 1837.

Wood-Martin - 1888

By the time Wood-Martin and Wakeman excavated the monument fifty years later, the capstone had been lifted and moved a few meters to the east edge of the platform. This was most likely the work of Roger Walker of Rathcarrick who dug in many of the Carrowmore circles. Wood-Martin found large areas of burnt soil under the chamber, which he believed were evidence of large cremation fires. He found 873 fragments of cremated human remains, amounting to 1.3 kilograms, some unburnt remains of an adult and a child.

"The capstones of the original kistvaen are gone. The general form of the tomb is that of the figure of eight, with a narrow opening between the compartments. The longer axis is north-north-east and south-south-west. The interment had been greatly disturbed.""

There was evidence of uncalcined as well as calcined human interment. At the north-north-east end of the cist there was a calcined interment, and above it an unburnt interment. Of this the atlas and lower jaw of an adult were nearly perfect, with four back teeth and three incisors. There were also portions of a cranium. Besides these there were six bones of a young child, and a few bones of a small rodent.

As the excavation proceeded, that is, went deeper, fragments of calcined human remains were turned up. They consisted of eight hundred and seventy-three small bones had been imperfectly burned. Several fire-marked and partially carbonized bones were observable (as well as others in a fragmentary condition), such as the anterior half of the axis (second cervical vertebra).

Pieces of the right and left halves of the body of the lower jaw, the right half containing a sound, firmly implanted first molar tooth the left half containing the roots (all sound) of the first molar, two bicuspids (premolars), and the canine teeth; four pieces of the flat bones of the skull (parietal or frontal); human teeth, i.e. four fragments of, and four complete incisors, two bicuspids, and four lower molars, the crowns of each molar sound.

Amongst the fragments which formed the bulk of this collection there were many which showed the crack-like marks noticed in the contents of other graves. In fact, some of the bones appear as if they had been subjected to greater heat than others.

At the lowest level of the side-stones of the cist—which were of the average height of four feet—a floor or flagging of calpy limestone flags was found. On this the bodies seemed to have been originally cremated, portions of the floor showing marks. Semi-burnt wood was also found intact in places, with a layer of calcined bones above."

It was also plainly evident, according to Mr. James Graves, from the fact that the flooring and the burnt bones extended under the side-stones of the cist, that these side-stones and their cover, which formed the dolmen, had been set up over the funeral pyre, that the calcined remains formed the primary interment, and that they had not been placed within an already completed chamber, but that that chamber had been built on and around them, the flagging which formed its flooring having served as the original hearth. "No implements, ornaments, or traces of fictilia were discovered."

- William Gregory Wood-Martin, Ruse Stone Monuments, 1886.

Burenhult's Dig - 1994 - 1995

In 1994 and again in 1995 Swedish archaeologist Goran Burenhult and his team excavated at Carrowmore 56. Burenhult has published the results of his dig in 2020, and they can be downloaded here. Burenhult discovered that the monumet was built as a platform on a site that had been levelled prior to construction. The boulder circle surrounding the platform had been badly robbed out on the northside of the monument. Burenhult excavated a large number of artefacts including a fine flint arrowhead and a pair of high quality flint scrapers. He found lots of evidence of burning, scattered charcoal, many fragments of quartz and pieces of crystal, pieces of flint and chert, and sea shells.

Burenhult dated the monument to around 3,500 BC, making it approximately contemporary with the chamber of Listoghil. A section of his excavation report is reproduced below.

Excavation Report

The excavation of Tomb 56 was commenced during the 1994 season. The damaged boulder circle. The system of co-ordinates was placed with the origin of co-ordinates in the center of the monument, with the X-axis magnetic north-south and the Y-axis east-west, thereby dividing the monument into four quadrants, quadrants I-IV (QI being the one to the southwest, QII to the northwest, QIII to the northeast and QIV to the southeast). A fixed point was chosen in a small depression close to the highest point of a large boulder, placed just outside the monument on the southeastern side: +56.20 meters above sea level. Quadrants I, II and IV were chosen for excavation, while quadrant III was left as a future control area, according to the conditions of the excavation licence. Apart from the sections, quadrants I and IV were completely excavated during the 1994 season, while only layer 1 in quadrant I was documented that year. The remaining part of quadrant II, 29 square meters, was excavated during the 1995 season, as well as the remaining cross-sections in quadrants I and IV.

Construction

Tomb 56 is situated on a northern slope. Seen from the north, the monument seems to be placed on a platform, while seen from the south it seems to be placed on the ground level. The monument itself is levelled to a horizontal position. The central chambers) is built of nine orthostats, named clockwise from A to I, beginning with the southwestern one. The entrance of the tomb is oriented towards the south, marked with an entrance stone, and a possible sill-stone. The cap stone is missing, but a large boulder situated just outside the boulder circle on the south-eastern side was believed to have served as a capstone. The excavation of the area around stone 8 showed, however, that it, because of its size and shape, could not have served as a capstone.

The boulder circle surrounding the central chamber is severly damaged in its northern parts. The remaining visible boulders are numbered clockwise 1-14, beginning with the boulder closest to the chamber entrance on the southern side, and include the possible cap-stone. On the north-western side of the monument, in quadrant II, four stones are missing from the boulder circle, but their foundations were documented during the excavation. No large boulders can be seen on the north-eastern side of the monument, in quadrant III. The diameter of the boulder circle is ten meters. During the 1995 excavation, three more stones were found in the cross- section of quadrant IV. These were numbered 14, 15 and 16.

The area between the central chambers and the surrounding boulder circle is totally covered with a massive stone-packing, built of stones with a diameter of about ten to forty centimeters. No inner constructions were found in the stone packing. In and beneath the stone-packing, layers of charcoal, possibly cremation spots, hereinafter called activity areas A - D, were found together with artefacts.

Quadrants I and IV were completely documented during the 1994 season, while the remaining layers of quadrant Il was excavated in 1995. Also the cross-sections documented in quadrants 1 and V were excavated during the 1995 season. All excavated quadrants provided intact layers with a massive stone-packing, and burned activity areas, possibly cremation spots, were found in layers with charcoal, artefacts and small amounts of cremated human bones. Two pits or post-holes, dug down into the brown, sterile gravel layer, were found close to the central chamber in quadrant II. Both produced pieces of charcoal. Two disturbed secondary cists were found, Cist A beside the large boulder outside the monument in quadrant IV, and Cist B south of the central chamber in quadrant IV. The latter had a floor of limestone slabs and contained remains of cremated human bones. The area completely excavated and documented (quadrants I, II and IV) is 90 square meters. The 1995 excavation could reveal that Tomb No. 56 actually is a platform construction, and that a layer of light brown, sterile gravel had been levelled out as a base for the erection of the monument. A ditch was found outside the monument on the northern side, but could not be traced on the southern side. The ditch has not been further excavated. The orthostats in the central chamber, and also the stones in the boulder circle, have been placed in this gravel layer, rather than dug down into the sterile ground.

The central chamber

The central chamber was excavated by William Gregory Wood-Martin in 1888 (Wood- Martin 1888, The Rude Stone Monuments of Ireland), and was also dug into in modern time, and during the 1994 season the disturbed layers were again excavated. Wood-Martin found both unburned and cremated human skeletal material in great quantities, and he also recorded a floor or flagging of calpy limestone slabs in the bottom of the central chamber. Portions of this flooring showed marks of fire, where semi-burned wood was recorded cremation spot, and it was cooncluded that the chamber had been erected over the funeral pyre: "At the lowest level of the side-stones of the cist—which were of the average height of four feet—a floor or flagging of calpy limestone slabs was found; it was on this, which overlay the undisturbed "till" that—in the opinion of late Rev. James Graves, who assisted at the exploration—the body or bodies had been originally cremated, portions of the floor showing marks of fire, also semi-burnt wood was in places found intact with the layer of calcinated bones above. It was plainly evident—according to the same authority—from the floor and burned bones extending in "pockets" under the side-stones of the cist, that the latter had been constructed over the funeral pyre, that the calcinated remains were the primary internment, and that they had not been placed within an already completed chamber".

The chamber of Tomb 56 can be characterized as a double or twin chamber, the central part apparently being deliberately narrowed by turning the orthostats into an angle towards the sides of the tomb, creating two distinct chamber halves, here called the north and south sections of the central chambers. It cannot be excluded that one of the chambers, in that case the southern one, has been added at a later stage than the primary construction of a multi-period monument. The radiocarbon dates from the 1995 excavation can possibly prove if this is the case or not.

Stones C, D, E, F and G form the walls of the north section, while stones A, B, C, G, H and I form the walls of the south section. Stone F seems to be cracked and mended, but this cannot be confirmed until the excavation of the chamber is completed in 1995. The northern chamber is 0.75 by 1.20 meters wide on the inside, the southern chamber 0.80 by 1.30 meters, entrance not included. Including the orthostats, the total length of the chamber is 3.80 meters, and the width 1.90 meters. The entrance stone is placed 0.20 meters south of the chamber. It is an almost rectangular boulder directed north northeast - south southwest, as if to indicate a passage or an entrance to the chamber. At the southern end of the entrance stone is placed a sill stone, directed west-east. A possible second entrance stone could be seen in the cross-section in quadrant IV.

In the disturbed layers of both chambers, scattered fragments of cremated bones were found. In the northern secion, the cremated bones were mixed with unburnt animal bones. All radiocarbon samples from this section have been excluded from the radiocarbon sample list due to this recent involvement. In the northern chamber, bone concentrations close to the orthostats were found. In the southern section a large amount of unburnt human teeth was found. All other bone material was cremated. No remains of a floor or flagging of limestones, neither any marks of fire, was found. The orthostats of the central chamber do not in the inside areas rest on a floor of limestone slabs or on an area containing remains from a funeral pyre. It is, however, highly likely that the bone concentrations between the orthostats ("in pockets") have been placed there in connection with the erection of the monument, as earlier has been shown was the case in e.g. Tomb no. 7. These concentrations are the only possible intact remains in the central chamber area.

The cists and the activity areas

Cist A

Cist A was found outside the boulder circle, outside quadrant IV. It was severely damaged, and seemed to have been pushed out of its original location, possibly by stone 8. The remains of the cist consisted of five flat stone slabs and three smaller supporting slabs. No cremation/bone fragments were found in or close to the damaged cist. Small pieces of charcoal were found alongside the cist. The cist area also contained one piece of retouched chert and a stone ball. An attempt to lift stone 8 with a bulldozer was made in 1995 but failed due to the enormous size and shape, being stuck deep down in the ground. Stone 8 could not, because of its shape and weight, have served as a capstone to the central chamber.

Cist B

Cist B was found right to the south of the central chamber, situated immediately to the west of the entrance stone. The cist was covered by a flat stone slab. The entrance stone was forming the eastern wall of the cist, the sill stone, the southern wall, and the western and northern walls were built of smaller, irregular stones. The floor of the cist consisted of seven small, flat stone slabs. Scattered fragments of cremated human bones were found in the cist and beneath the floor slabs, and an unburned bone was also found. A concentration of shells was found in the cist. Charcoal was found inside the cist, as well as beneath the floor slabs.

Activity area A Activity area A consists of a concentration of charcoal found in the stone packing in quadrant N. Rich quantities of charcoal produced a series of radiocarbon samples.

Activity area B

Activity area B is situated in quadrant I, and is defined by an area of sooty layers containing rich quantities of charcoal, possibly a cremation spot. The area in quadrant I has a diameter of about 1.5 meters, and continues into the as yet unexcavated north to south section of quadrant IV. Four charcoal concentrations were collected within the area. Thus far, one sample has been dated: sample no. 35 (see report below). A well-preserved arrowhead of white flint and a flint flake was found in the sooty area, clearly in a charcoal context. The profile and cross-section was excavated in 1995. In layer 3, Acticity area B continued into the cross-section, and under stoe A. A concentration of large pieces of cremated bones were found here, together with radiocarbon sample no. 60025.

Activity area C

Concentrations were collected within the area (C-14 nos 47, 48, 52 and 63). Thus far, one sample has been dated: sample 63.

Activity area D

Activity area D is situated in quadrant IV, and is defined by a sooty layer. Seven concentrations of charcoal were collected.

Activity area E

Activity area E is situated in quadrant II, and is defined by a sooty layer. Concentrations of charcoal were collected. The total excavation area of Tomb 56 has been refilled, restored and returfed to its former appearance. For security reasons, the central chamber has been filled with large stones.

During the 1994 and 1995 seasons, the following finds were documented and registered in Tomb No. 56:

163 radiocarbon samples (charcoal if not specified) 45 cremated bone finds and bone concentrations (human) 105 finds - artefacts, retouched stone material etc.

Burenhult's full excavation report for Carrowmore 56 can be viewed and downloaded here.