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XVIII. 



ON A CIST AND URNS FOUND AT GREENHILLS, 

 TALLAGHT, COUNTY DUBLIN. Ey LIEUTENANT- 

 COLONEL G. T. PLUNKETT, R. E., Director of the DubHn 

 Museum of Art and Science. [Plates X. to XV.] 



[Read February 27, 1899.] 



On Tuesday, August 2nd, 1898, two men came to the Dublin Museum, 

 carrying earthen vessels packed in nosebags with straw, a parcel 

 containing pieces of other earthen vessels, and another parcel of 

 fragments of bone. 



They stated that these things had been found when digging for 

 sand at Greenhills, and said they were in a small chamber in the 

 ground lined with stones. I spoke to the men of the importance of 

 not disturbing the spot in any way, and, as Mr. Coffey was away 

 from Dublin at the time, I sent Mr. Buckley, assistant in the Art and 

 Indiistrial Department of the Museum, to Greenliills the same after- 

 noon, to impress upon all there that they would be paid much more 

 for preserving the find as discovered, and allowing us to make our own 

 arraugenients for removing it than for any articles they might offer 

 separately for sale. 



I had seen at Copenhagen, in 1896, in the Museum, as one of its 

 most interesting features, a prehistoric sepulchre or a grave lined with 

 stones long enough to contain a recumbent body. This when dis- 

 covered had been taken carefully to pieces, brought to the Museum 

 and there set up in a case, every stone being replaced in its position as 

 when discovered. I made a mental note at the time, that when we 

 found in Ireland a prehistoric burial suitable for the purpose we 

 would try to do better than this and carry into the Museum the whole 

 of the sepulchre and its surroundings undisturbed, and here was the 

 very opportunity for putting the idea into practice. 



During the next three days Mr. Buckley was frequently at Green- 

 hills, and I visited the spot myself and questioned the sand-diggers 

 closely as to the circumstances under which the chamber was dis- 

 covered, and also, iu order that wc might be able to restore the cist 



