In the summer of 1995, while work was being done on the new Portlaoise by-pass, a major archaeological site was discovered on a small hill called Neville's Hill in Ballydavis, just up the road from our school. The discovery was described by the National Museum of Ireland as "one of the most important archaeological finds of recent times." The site dates from the Iron Age or Celtic times in Ireland (more than two thousand years ago). It was used both as a burial place and a sort of factory for making things. We know that it was a factory because of the furnaces found there. The site consists of four ring ditches (the biggest is 16m in diameter), pits and postholes. A central burial area containing cremated remains of human bones was also found. Lumps of charcoal, human bones, animal bones and red earth were found in the ring barrow.

Ring barrows are circular earthworks with a central mound surrounded by a ditch, and again by a bank. We have the remains of at least nine other ring barrows on The Heath. In earlier times there were probably more than this. No-one knows for sure when they were constructed. The ring barrow in Ballydavis is the first one ever to be excavated in County Laois.

Many other artefacts were excavated in Ballydavis as well. There was a cylindrical bronze box (about 10 cm in diameter) dating from the first century AD, which is the first of its kind ever found in Ireland. This box contained nearly 80 multi-coloured beads (green, blue and yellow) made of glass and stone. Bits of bronze wire suggest that the beads may have formed a necklace. A bone brooch with a lovely decoration at the spring was also found, as well as a bronze safety-pin brooch (known as a fibula), some Iron Age nails and a gouge (a sort of chisel). The archaeologist, Professor Michael Herity said the find threw light on one of the least-known times in early Irish history.

HISTORY TODAY LOCAL NAMES PUPILS MEMORIES

THE HEATH GAEILGE INTERESTING FACTS SPORTS FORTY FACES

PLAYGROUND GAMES PLACENAMES A DAY IN THE LIFE MURDERED ARTISTS

NO MORE, NO LESS PICTURES OF OUR AREA OUR COMPUTER ART

HOW'S SHE CUTTIN'? THE CAT LAUGHS? GOODBYE TO PRIMARY SCHOOL

OUR MILLENNIUM HOW WE WELCOMED... SORRY, LEONARDO....

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