Ancient bones of woman, baby recovered in dig

The bones of a prehistoric woman and her baby have been recovered by archaeologists during excavations of an ancient burial site in the Burren.Over the past two weeks a team of archaeologists have been conducting a dig at Kilcorney, Kilfenora, on lands owned by the chairman of Burren IFA, Mr Michael Davoren.

At the site yesterday, Mr Davoren said: "I wasn't aware that such things would be on the land. We were always told that the Burren is an archaeologist's paradise, but we were never told why, and as you see there could be 10 sites around like this in the one field."

The find at the site includes the woman's skull, which has been removed to allow for tests.

Leading the dig is an archaeologist from Corofin, Ms Christine Grant. She said: "There has been very little excavation done on the Burren when you consider the size of it and the amount of archaeology within it."

Ms Grant, who is director of the Burren Research and Education Forum, said there were strong indications that there were three other burial sites in the cairn they are working upon.

She believes the woman was either pregnant or had just given birth. She said: "Outside the side stone there are more human bones, but we are not sure what that means yet." During the dig "it is hoped to find some artefacts inside in the burial area because we could learn a lot from that".