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Hi folks,
I have added a small section to my web gallery of ancient sites in Ireland which has photos of scale models of tombs from the Ulster museum in belfast. What I am looking for is for you knowledgeable folks to cast an eye over the text that accompanies the photos. I'm not an expert but I would like to get it right so any errors/omissions you think are important please let me know.

One thing in particular I'm not 100% clear on, most sources say court tombs are the oldest type of tomb found in Ireland, yet Carrowmore and Carrowkeel passage tombs seem to date back to 7,000 years whereas the range given for court tombs is usually 4-5,000 years... Are passage tombs in a different category?

The link:
http://cianmcliam.smugmug.com/gallery/371690

Thanks!

The 'court tombs are the oldest' issue is one that will stay for a while yet. The radio carbon dates for Carrowmore are from the 1990's and most people still use Evans' book from 1961 as their source of info (even if they used a different book, the book they used would have used Evans).

Apart from accademic papers not many books have been published about Irish sites since the Carrowmore dates were established. The court tomb at Primrose Hill gave a date of circa 5400 bce and was the oldest for a few years (Primrose Hill is on the slopes of Knocknarea).

A lot of the dates given for court tombs aren't that reliable due to the times they were excavated (in the 1930s mainly) and so I think these could also get pushed back a little. Most of their dates are comparative and not scientific in the modern sense.