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IV. 



ON SOME INTERMENTS AT MOOBETOWN, CO. MEATH. 

 By I:. A. s. MACALISTEB, Litt.D., ahd J. E. D. IIOLTBY, M.B. 



Plate II. 



Bead Febbcabt 12. Published Accruer 27, 1917. 



Mb. Josbph Dolan, Ardee, wrote to me three or four months ago to the 

 effect that a find of human bones had been made in the course of quarrying 

 operations at a site near his town. Mr. Holtby ami I took an early 

 opportunity of visiting the place under his guidance. 



The site is in the middle of a field on the townland of Mooretown, just 

 over the boundary of Co. Meath. Mr. Moore, the proprietor, made us 

 welcome, and gave us every help in his power. 



We found that in digging down l>> tin' rock for quarrying purposes the 

 workmen had cut through a series of shallow graves, each containing at least 

 one skeleton ; bnt the bones had much decayed, and were in a very rotten 

 state, and a g.M»d deal of damage had been done by treasure-seekers in the 

 interval between their discovery and our arrival. The osteological material 

 recovered was therefore not so much as it might have been. 



The graves v. low tranches, about 2 feet 6 inches below the ground 



level, lined on each side for their lowest 10 "r 12 inches with slabs on edge, 

 suj>|«irting horizontal cover-slabs. The length of a perfect grave exposed 

 was 8 feet 3 inches, and its hreadth 1 foot 6 ind 



Tht-re were eleven graves exposed when we came to the ground. Most 

 of them had been broken and wr-re empty. They lay approximately east and 

 west, the heads to the west ; but they ahowed a tendency to radiate ; the last 

 four of the series pointed more towards the north. 



N thing whatever was deposited with the bodies to give a clue to 

 their age. 



Of en graves exposed, the first three (counting from the south) 



were empty, the fourth contained an astragalus, the fifth and sixth were 

 empty, the seventh contained the remains of a man's skeleton, the eighth the 

 fragment of a skull, the ninth part of the bones of two women, the tenth and 

 eleventh were empty. A twelfth grave, we were informed, had existed south 

 of No. 11, bnt had been destroyed by the quarrymen. We tried with a 



