John,
I apologize for bringing up such an old post, but I HAD to respond to this one as somehow I missed this post this last year.? ?Since this is another R-A151 individual, (and potentially distant family for us A151 folks), I spent several days researching the burial to see what kind of details I could find out, as you can tell a lot about a persons life by how they are laid to rest.? ?After a wild goose chase, I narrowed down the source for Claristown 14 to a series of excavations and archaeological digs that were done in preparation for a new M1 motorway bypass around Drogheda, in Co. Meath, Ireland.? ??
The source record for the original DNA source & excavation was traced back to an excavation by Ian Russell in 2001.? ?Excavation details:? ?Burial 14, Skull. Site No. 0086. F401?Reg No. -?Habitat: R19.P3.S2?Lic No. 01E039? ?Description: Skull? ??Burial description:? ?Lintel grave within ring ditch
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1mk9pMMUbChzyW8CwVUYgokVL4iv83WBAKdIf3pWXJnw/edit#gid=833626537
If anyone else is interested, this appears to be the article in?which CT14's excavation occurred..? I am still searching for this one as I would really like to read it in full:
Russell, Ian et al. - Claristown 2: a cemetery and later cairn; excavations for the Drogheda Bypass - M1 Motorway [paper to M1 Seminar, Drogheda, June 2001], XIII (2002) 23–31
In looking for further information, I found the M1 Motorway bypass summary findings has quite an amazing analysis of what was found at Claristown.? ?The burial process indicated that CT14, (if he is the man found in the center of this cairn) was a person of great importance!
Late Iron Age Roundhouse and Ring-Cairn
"Underneath a tree planted on a clearance cairn in Claristown a Late Iron Age roundhouse was discovered that had been transformed into a Late?Iron Age - Early Medieval ring-cairn monument.This?stunning site was set in the middle of a plateau,?centrally placed between the Nanny and DelvinRivers looking out towards the Irish Sea. The?roundhouse was probably built around 100 – 50 BC?with four concentric rings of posts. It was 11.58 m in?diameter, had an external drip gully and a porch-hall?entrance faced east. Inside, partition walls defined a?probable sleeping room, a small ‘waiting room’, a large empty ‘audience chamber’, and a cooking area seen by three hearths. In the possible ‘sleeping room’ a centrally placed sunken hearth contained a buried human infant, dating from first to fourth century AD. The building remained in use for several hundred years until around AD 300 – 400, when it was demolished and a circular layer of stones was laid where the building had stood.Through this platform base, a large stone-lined and stone-filled burial pit was sunk, containing a large human adult male, laid supine, east to west with the head to the west in a very Christian manner.
A huge bonfire was then made on the stone platform and many finds and animal bones show a great gathering and much feasting. After this the monument was created by digging a circular trench to contain a palisade made of paired posts and possible wattling.? The palisade appeared to act as a revetment holding?back an external bank or ring-cairn of stones. Inside?the palisade a small central cairn was thrown up. There are obvious similarities in both date and construction between Claristown and the Royal Site at Navan Fort (Site B), Co. Armagh.Was there a similarity in status and function?
During the fourth and fifth centuries AD nine Christian style human burials were set immediately outside the main ring-cairn.There were two doublemale burials, both covered with mounds of stone.Two pieces of clear glass, possibly Roman imports, were recovered."
I will be looking for the article written about the findings, as I want to confirm which individual is CT14.? ?Based on the descriptions from the source material for Lara Cassidy's paper, CT14 should be our man in the cairn...
John James
Mesa, AZ
lilwayne