Galway tombs reveal details of earliest farming communities

Two tombs in Maree almost 6,000 years old

ARCHEOLOGISTS have discovered two Stone Age tombs dating back almost 6,000 years during excavation works at a prehistoric site in the Maree area.

The two Neolithic tombs located close to each other detail evidence about the earliest farming communities in the West of Ireland.

The excavation in Maree is being led by Dr. Michelle Comber and Dr. Noel McCarthy of the Discipline of Archaeology at University of Galway, and it has revealed two different types of megalithic tombs.

Researchers believe the site represents the only known example in Ireland where a court tomb and a portal tomb are found together, offering new evidence about the people who built them during the early Neolithic period - the first farmers in this part of the world.

Court tombs were burial monuments with an open area or ‘court’ where ritual or ceremonial activities took place, while portal tombs were stone-built burial chambers marked by a large capstone.

“The size and scale of the tombs, and the effort required to construct them, reflect a sizeable community living in and farming this part of coastal Galway,” said Dr. Michelle Comber, the project co-lead and lecturer in Archaeology at University of Galway.

“Their location right next to each other represents a meeting of two traditions, raising new questions about the nature of that interaction,” she added.

Once thought completely destroyed, the court tomb in Prospecthill in Maree, has been uncovered by University of Galway archaeological excavations this summer. It is one of the southern-most examples of this type of tomb and is also one of the largest discovered, at approximately 30metres in length.

Beside the court tomb, and previously unrecorded as a burial monument, the remains of a large portal tomb have also been found.

“Discovering the second monument has added a layer of complexity that informs our understanding of culture and society in the Neolithic period and beyond,” said Dr. Noel McCarthy, also project co-lead and lecturer in Archaeology at University of Galway.

The excavation has also uncovered stone tools, prehistoric pottery and cremated bone, including a small amethyst pendant from the portal tomb.