A N C I E N T H IBERNIAN SKULL
PBOM TUMULUS OF KNOOK-MARAIDHE, PHCBNIX PARK, DUBLIN.
(BEGION OF THE BLANII, TEMP. PTOLEMIEI, A.D. 120.)
Cranium from Eistvaen, Phrenix Park.—Quarter-size.
IK the year 1838, during improvements which were making in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, a large
tumulus was removed. This was situated on an elevation known by the Irish name of " Knockmaraidhe,"
or the Hill of the Mariners. The barrow itself was 120 feet in diameter, and 15 in
height, and was surrounded by several smaller ones. In the course of the excavation, at some
distance from the centre, four small sepulchral vases were met with, which were enclosed in smaU
stone cists, and were said to contain calcined bones. Three of these vases are in the Museum of
the Royal Irish Academy, by the Council of which body, through the kind intervention of
W. R. Wilde, Esq., M.R.I.A., we are permitted to present upon the next page the illustration
of one of them, and of other objects discovered in the tumulus, and also to make use of the
skulls derived from it.
This vase is the largest of the three found, hut is only 6 inches in height. It is of rude
imperfectly baked pottery, and is decorated in a simple mode aU over, even, as is not uncommon,
inside its beveled lip, with indentations and Knes, both circular, upright and oblique; the zigzag
pattern being most observable. It is to be regretted that this portion of the excavation was not
explored with more care, and the matters observed accurately described.
In the centre of the mound a megalithic sepulchre or kistvaen was uncovered. The covering
stone of tills tomb was 6 ft. 6 in. long, from 3 ft. to 3 ft. 6 in. wide, and 14 in. thick. It was
supported by five others, about 2 feet high, and of different breadths. One of the supporting
22. (1)