me of which had been cremated. From examining the unburnt
bone, it was shown to come from at least two separate individuals, but much of
their skeletons were missing, and what was left had been scattered about the
passage. Various grave goods were deposited alongside the bodies
inside the passage. Excavations that took place in the late 1960s and early
1970s revealed seven 'marbles', four pendants, two beads, a used flint flake, a
bone chisel and fragments of bone pins and points. Many more artefacts had been found in
the passage in previous centuries by visiting antiquarians and tourists,
although most of these had been removed and gone missing or been placed in
private collections. Nonetheless, sometimes these were recorded, and it is
believed that the grave goods that came from Newgrange were typical of
Neolithic Irish passage grave assemblages. The
remains of non-human animals have also been found in the tomb, primarily those
of mountain hares, rabbits and dogs,
but also bats, sheep or goat, cattle, song thrush, and more rarely, mollusc and frog.
Most
