- Early Christianity and its Monuments -
stone-walled enclosure around cist and unlined graves may be contemporary.
A cross-and-spiral decorated pillar of sixth-or seventh-century date may mark the
edge of the cemetery. Later phases include corbelled stone huts (clochans), one
containing evidence for ironworking. The second phase included the construction
of a stone church partially over the earlier cemetery. Without the evidence of the
inhumation bone which has not survived, the precise religious function of this
site, and whether it was monastic, remains unclear. However, the fine collection of
sculpture does indicate that it was an important ecclesiastical site.
Evidence for early Christian activity at the monument popularly known as
Dunmisk Fort, Co. Tyrone, comprises a timber building (possibly a small church or
shrine), debris associated with glass-and metalworking, an industrial area, and a
burial ground which shows distinct burial patterns: in the centre, well-spaced graves
in lines running south-west/north-east focused around a large pit which may
originally have held a cross or pillar stone. To the east of the church, a number
of large, elaborate graves were found, some marked with kerbstones or cappings of
white pebbles. The site has been interpreted as that of a small monastic community,
though the presence of mixed burial (all ages and both sexes) suggests that it may have
served the surrounding area, perhaps also through the manufacture of goods (Ivens
1989; Henderson and Ivens 1992: 56). The elaborate graves may be those of abbots
or ecclesiastics, or important lay persons. Sometimes the evidence is less definite.
At Tullylish, Co. Down, where the Annals of Ulster record a community as early as
AD 809, excavations have revealed a massive ditch in use in the seventh century, filled