Macai.is'1'er, &.C. — l3rome-A(je Cams on Carrowkeel. 345 



assumption cannot be demonstrated. On the bare, wind-swept, rain-washed 

 rock surfaces, so far as we could see, not so much as a splinter of bone remains 

 to tell of its former occupants or their mode of life. On the other hand, the 

 assumption seems capable of justification by a process of exclusion. The 

 buildings are not comparable with the Iron Age and Eaily Christian settle- 

 ments of Fahan and elsewhere ; nor are they of the same nature as the early 

 medieval steadings whose remains are known as ring-forts. Though all 

 these types of buildings are round, analogy ends there. The Carrowkeel 

 community was distinguished from the others by its position in a strongly 

 fortified situation, remote from any place where agriculture is possible ; and 

 by its organisation, in that it is close and compact, not spread widely in single 

 huts over a large area of land. It is difficult to see to what period other than 

 the Bronze Age this very primitive settlement can be assigned. 



When we turn to the earns, our attention is immediately arrested by the 

 variety which they display, both in design and in execution. Two of them, 

 A and P, are completely blind, being apparently cenotaphs like Carn D at 

 Loughcrew. Others, like H or 0, have in their heart small cists, with or 

 without passages leading to them. Others have elaborate and well-built 

 chambers, comparable in excellence of structure with that in Brugh na Boinne, 

 though of course on a less grandiose scale. The plan of the earns is more or 

 less round in all, but E is a marked exception to this rule. Again, the rude 

 architecture of some, such as H and 0, contrasts strikingly with the construc- 

 tive and artistic skill displayed by others, such as F and G. Had the 

 monuments been found rifled, we would have felt inevitably drawn to the 

 conclusion that they represented widely different culture-strata ; and indeed 

 we long laboured iiuder the impression that Cam F was Neolithic. But the 

 absolute uniformity of the deposits shows clearly that all the earns were in 

 use at one and the same period : the contents even of E were in all respects 

 similar to those in its neighbours. 



It has been pointed out in the foi'egoing pages that in the days of the 

 carn-builders the hill was not covered with peat to the same extent as at 

 present. Sub-aerial denudation, extending over a long period of time, must 

 have resulted in the presence of a large number of blocks of limestone, lying 

 loose on the surface. These were available for the builders. But in those 

 earns which show a superiority of construction, it is evident that no mere 

 haphazard choice of material was made. The symmetry of corresponding 

 blocks, the absolute identity of appearance in groups of blocks — notably in 

 the slabs facing the chambers in F, proving that they came from the same 

 bed — show clearly that the architect who superintended the construction 

 selected his materials carefully, if, indeed, he did not cause them to be specially 



