Burial, Lusk, Co. Dublin
Co. Dublin |
Burial Sites
A road-widening scheme in the north County Dublin village of Lusk turned out to be an unexpectedly grim encounter with the early medieval period.
Among the burials uncovered during the groundwork was a double grave containing two adult males, both decapitated, one with an iron spearhead still lodged in his torso. The site sits between Church Road to the south and Treen Lane to the west, an ordinary suburban margin that concealed several centuries of forgotten violence.
The burial ground first came to light during a preliminary assessment carried out under licence in 2005, when at least five inhumations were identified. All were laid out in the same careful manner, supine and extended, oriented east to west with the head placed to the east, a burial posture broadly associated with early Christian practice. Subsequent excavation ahead of the road works uncovered eight further burials of this type outside the line of an ecclesiastical enclosure ditch, essentially a boundary ditch defining a religious site, which returned a fill date spanning roughly 42 to 600 AD. The double burial, with its two beheaded men, was radiocarbon dated to between 410 and 570 AD, placing it firmly in the turbulent early post-Roman centuries when Ireland was only beginning to absorb Christianity. Whether the decapitations represent an execution, a battle, or some other form of violent death, the record does not say, though the spearhead in the torso of one individual makes a peaceful end unlikely.
The site itself is not marked or accessible as a visitor destination; it was excavated in advance of development and the findings are recorded in the archaeological literature rather than preserved in situ. For anyone with a particular interest, the area around Lusk's medieval round tower and church complex, which forms part of the same ecclesiastical landscape referenced in the excavation records, gives some sense of the long religious history of the townland. The double burial and its associated finds are documented in O'Connell's 2009 report, which remains the primary source for anyone wanting to follow the detail further.