278 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



thopur, of whicli we have heard in connexion with Mur na fcri cogur. The 

 various sleeping-huts thai are referred to in the text were probably temporary 

 structures. At i>. 24 we hear of Lios tux Rwgraidhc, "now called Lios Tdrna 

 Eccis," where was the house of Cairbre Cromm, king of Breg and of Mide. 



A lios called after the chief \ i Tdrna Ecces was perhaps that otherwise 



called Mur nOllamhan. We have already suggested an identification of this 

 structure with Raith na Senad, and ibis may well have been the raith used 

 by Cairbre as a sleeping-place. 



.*!. — Tmk OltlGIM OF Tkmaii; 

 I'm, i robo Tcnuiir Tenuiirl When did Temair become Temair ? This is 

 the question which the poel of VI) i invokes tbe legendary sages of Ireland 

 to answer; and it is the question which we must now consider. 



The material for the study that is now to occupy our attention is two- 

 fold : archaeological and literary. The archaeological evidence has been 

 marshalled in the preceding section; the literary evidence consists of a 

 number of very remarkable traditions. We begin with the archaeological 

 material. 



It is impossible to date rude earthen mounds by inspection only. The 



most expert archaeologist in the world could not classify the majority of the 



remains of Temaii chronologically without assistance from some external 



Bouree. E cavation, by revealing datable objects, might conceivably give a 



olue, but tbis is Kv ii" m< I in. Indeed, bo far as can be judged from 



■ ion oil the bui face, the pn -ml " dig "in the mounds 



of Temair are not very bright. Petrie found people cutting top-dressing 



from the mounds, and ibis process may have been going on for more than a 



re his time, further, I am inclined to suspect that there wasa 



tain amount of surreptiti ifter the discovery of the ', r reat 



•n torqu in the last century. We bave no information as t., tbe 



■ "f the mounds before that time, as no sur< ier than Petrie's 



me - n'li hypothesis that the partial destruction or total 



what might have been the ni"st promising mounds 



f xcavation can be [plained. In any ition on a site of 



the outstanding importance which Temair ; should not be carried out 



|.t with the ni"-t extreme caution ; and the excavator would be in duty 

 bound t" expend as much money in restoring the mounds t" the exact con- 

 dition in which he found them as in making the necessary trenches. It is to 

 t>e hoped thai we may never know what, if anything, lies buried beneath the 

 surface at Temair, it the excavation is to be carried out after the model put 

 before us in re rs at Raith na Senad. 



