A Bronze Age hilltop cemetery complex: Ballon Hill, Co. Carlow

Abstract

Situated towards the middle of the relatively flat expanse between the Blackstairs and Wicklow mountains to the east and the Castlecomer plateau to the west, Ballon Hill is a conical-shaped hill aligned northwest-southeast in otherwise unremarkable topography. Rising to only 130m above sea-level, the surrounding countryside elevates the hill into a topographical focal point. This low yet prominent hill appears to have attracted considerable attention in the Early Bronze Age from possibly as early as 2200 BC when it was chosen as a burial place. In the 1850s and 1860s, ' diggings 'were carried out on the hill by the then landowners to try to recover so-called ' pans ' or ' crocks ' that were reportedly being found following tree-planting and quarrying works. Three publications on these ' diggings 'appeared in the 1850s and 1860s describing the uncovering of numerous artefacts. The Ballon Hill Archaeology Project was established to bring together all this disparate information and to try to understand the place of Ballon Hill in the burial record of the Irish Bronze Age. It appears at least three burial monuments, including a burial mound and two barrow monuments, were constructed during the Early Bronze Age with numerous other burials placed over much of the hill. There is an absolute minimum of 23 pottery vessels and arguably a minimum of 38 vessels from Ballon Hill with all extant vessels dating to the Early Bronze Age