Court cairn

The Court tomb or the Court cairn (German Hofgrab ) of Scottish Gaelic for cairn cairn, one of the megalithic chamber tombs ( Chambered tombs ) of the British Isles. It runs about 350 specimens found almost exclusively in Ulster in the north of Ireland or in Northern Ireland.

The name of Court tomb was introduced in 1960 by the Irish archaeologists Ruaidhri de Valera. The up to 60 m long installations ( Creevykeel in County Sligo and Farranmacbride in County Donegal ) are also known as Horned ( horned ) Cairns or lobster ( Lobster ) Cairns. Some are shorter than 20 m; a length of about 30 m is the average. The maximum width is approximately half the length. Most seem in the early Neolithic period, to have been built from 3500 BC, many stayed until the late Neolithic period (2200 BC) in use.

The types

There are four subtypes. You have either outside or central courtyards. In the majority of cases there is a single court, the

• A) is open to the atmosphere and is also referred to as " half-court " for example, Browndod in County Antrim, Keel East, County Mayo and Halliday Clady, County Tyrone.
• B ) is closed except for a narrow entrance; ( Creevykeel, County Sligo) and in the wider, usually the eastern part of the trapezoidal stone hill that although the study indicates a change of the court, which could have been converted into a second phase. Ballyglass, County Mayo is similar in many respects.
• C ) cairn with galleries and courtyards at both ends are called ( Cohaw in County Cavan ) "Double - Court" Cairns. Occasionally, the cairn of this type are rectangular, but trapezoid majority ( Audleystown in County Down in Northern Ireland). Aghanaglack is provided with a slightly oblique aligned Galleries system with two chambers.
• D) The fourth rarer variant, includes some unusual plants. In the " Central Court" Cairns, for example Magheraghanrush in County Sligo, the farm is located centrally in the cairn, the galleries are located axially on both sides of the court. The cairn is with this guy in the middle at the widest and tapers towards both ends. The lateral access is located in the center of the oval courtyard.

Hills and court (Court)

A usually long, often trapezoidal mound of rubble stone was erected over several ( 2-4 ) mostly consecutive chambers ( galleries). A skirt surrounds usually the Cairns and the inner courtyards. The farm is bordered on the side of the gallery (s) through a designed Exedra, which usually consists of orthostat. The orthostat are often particularly high in the vicinity of each access to the gallery. Excavations have shown that the spaces were filled between them with an intermediate masonry, so that the stones looked like panels in a closed wall. Other courts, such as that of Behy, County Mayo, were bordered with dry masonry. The farms can be round or oval. You open up the gallery with the chambers. On two farms outside the main distribution area of the Court tombs, there were small U-shaped cairn ( Ballynamona Lower, County Waterford and Shanballyedmond, County Tipperary ). The cairn of Shanballyedmond was completely removed during excavation and yielded interesting results. A funnel-shaped forecourt to the gallery, and the gallery itself were paved. The cairn was taken by orthostat and dry masonry. A U-shaped arrangement was about 2.3 m away from the cairn of 34 post holes found. The polygonal stone hills of Bavan, in County Donegal, was certainly an original part of the monument.

Gallery

The gallery consists of up to four chambers that are more separated from each other symbolically. Sometimes there is a threshold stone between two side posts. Instead of a threshold that allows access to the space, close sometimes higher plates, Septal - stones, called the space between the posts. The chambers are part of an area marked by a Trilithenzugang axial gallery, which is accessible from the court (or the courts ) from. Galleries will be closed at the top by horizontal plates issued by corbelled or a combination of ceiling types. In most cases, this roof is missing now complete, but at Carrowbeagh, County Mayo it is received. Some plants have in the gallery side chambers ( Behy, County Mayo ). Cloghanmore has two coaxial lying parallel galleries. In Deerpark, County Sligo, are two parallel galleries at one end of the courtyard and a single on the other end. In Cloghanmore in Malin More County Donegal located on two orthostat the Hofeinfassung petroglyphs, but stylistically belong to the Iron Age.

Some systems separate (probably retrofitted ) side chambers with their own entrances on the long sides of Cairns (eg Creevekeel, County Sligo, Cregganconroe, County Tyrone, County Leitrim Tullyskeherny and Annaghmare in County Armagh ). Some are located on the outer edge of Cairns, but many are farther inside and have a short transition. Some plants in the southwestern Donegal have these side chambers in the courtyard.

Bone material

According to L. Flanaghan (as of 1998) 36 Court tombs have been excavated or investigated. In 13 of them were due to the soil conditions no bones. In the remaining 23, only partly definable bones were found. Only five (all in Ulster ) bargen non brante bone. The plants, the information provided as Clontygora, provided cremated bones of an adult while in Carrick- East, the bones of adults was found. In Ballyreagh, County Fermanagh, a woman was detected between 25 and 35 in age, while identified in Aghnaskeagh County Louth, the cremated bone than a woman and a girl.