Audleystown Court Cairn - Excavations

Excavations

The site was excavated in 1952 by AEP (Pat) Collins of the Archaeological Survey. The burial deposits included human bones and teeth, mammal bones, artefacts, burnt earth and charcoal. At least 34 individuals of both sexes and all ages were identified, with 17 in each gallery. In the northeast gallery the remains of ten individuals were found in the chamber and another seven in the second chamber, but there were no bones or grave goods in the third and fourth chambers. All the remains were disarticulated in such a way as to suggest that they must have been defleshed before being put in the tomb, and some were burned. Over 20 of the sets of bones were unburnt and had been placed in a defleshed condition, sometimes in small neatly arranged groups, at all levels in the burial deposits, which contained burnt bone throughout. At least 15 pottery vessels, reduced to fragments by roof collapse, were identified. Some were decorated, but most were plain Western Neolithic carinated bowls. Worked flint found included a large javelin head and 12 lozenge-shaped arrowheads, as well as a number of scrappers and knives. Two of the bowls found are exceptional in having lugs like vessels found in some tombs in Scotland. Fingertip fluting on three bowls makes them similar to bowls found in Scotland and the Isle of Man. The animal bones found included ox, sheep, goats, pig and dog or wolf, as well as bird bones. There was a food vessel and a horse bone found in one of the chambers.