Description of a great sepulchral mound at Aylesbury-road, near Donnybrook, in the county of Dublin, containing human and animal remains, as well as some objects of antiquarian interest, referable to the tenth or eleventh centuries / by William Frazer.

  • Frazer, William
Date:
[1879]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Description of a great sepulchral mound at Aylesbury-road, near Donnybrook, in the county of Dublin, containing human and animal remains, as well as some objects of antiquarian interest, referable to the tenth or eleventh centuries / by William Frazer. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    the most valiant king of his time, to the fleet of Gall-Gaedhil, i.e. they were Scoti and foster-children to the Northmen, and at one time they used to be called Northmen. They were defeated and slaughtered by Aedh, and many of their heads were carried off by Aedh, the son of Nial, with him, and the Irish were justified in committing this havoc, for these were accustomed to act like the Lochlanns ” (see p. 129 last quoted work). It is to these mixed races of Scoti and Danish northern invaders, who made constant raids on the Irish coasts during the ninth and tenth centuries, that I am inclined to ascribe this extensive massacre of per- sons of all ages, young and old, at Donnybrook, and the discovery of the different heaps of decapitated heads piled together in the mound is one of the reasons, amongst others, which induces me to form such an opinion. The piratical bands of Scoti are described by Irish his- ; torians as consisting of “ persons who have renounced their baptism, ] and who had the customs of Northmen, and been fostered by them,” i and “ though the original Northmen were bad to the Churches, these were far worse.” The usual places of abode whence these wild Scot- (tish catherans came were the outlying islands of Scotland, the Cantyre ijfeoasts, Aran, and the Isle of Man, whence they issued to join the pre- fdatory bands of Norse pirates in their invasions. VSTien uncovering such quantities of human remains, lying in close proximity to each other as they were examined into with attention, t several striking results were noticed. Thus Dr. Macalister obtained Uwo foetal femora resting undisturbed within the cavity of a female os innominatum; the unborn remains still being within the body of the parent. We also found where the hands of the dead had lain across 1 their abdomen, that as decomposition advanced the bones of the hands ! fell down into the pelvic cavities, and lay upon the sacrum. In some l the phalanges had even penetaated within the sacral foramina and lodged there. Again, on Nov. 24, 1879, I disinterred an infant’s (SAull, which was crushed in, and within it were the separate bones of an adult’s hand, probably its mother’s. To give an illustration of the t utter confusion in which many of the bodies were heaped together and i intermingled, there was dug out one firm cohering mass bound with ; the adhesive argillaceous clay as it lay in the ground, which yielded t two thigh bones placed horizontally in their natural position, a third ' thigh bone that was imbedded between them, and reversed, and two leg bones, also in reversed position. Thus it contained portions of t three different adult human beings, and yet all were gathered lying 1 like a bundle of sticks within a bulk so small that I could grasp it in i my hands. It would appear from the result of repeated testings made over t different parts of the mound, that on the average three separate layers £ of human bodies could be recognised, piled above each other through ! the entire space, yet the vertical depth of the clay stratum within which, strictly considered, these bones were imbedded did not exceed eighteen inches to two feet. The clay in which they lay was the SEE. II., VOL. II., POL. LIT. AND ANTIU. F