Through Dead Eyes

             The purpose of the story below is to entertain, describe the features of the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, and to explain what might have happened during the reburial ritual.

 

             There is not much that I remember. I was over taken by bewilderment for a long time. All my past memories and experiences would play as an eternal loop, over and over. My sole purpose of existence was dependent upon these memories. I have analyzed every detail. The most precious moments are the human expressions. The details that all the facial movements convey, allows for the illusion of community. This community was the foundation of sanity before it was my time for release.

            It was a young child. She or he came when the moon was at its highest point. The child dug through the ground using only stone and hand. When they found me, I was not whole. The pressure of nature had taken its toll. She took away my sense of community, my belonging, and my face. As soon as the child made contact with my bone, there was a new connection with the present. Men and women were standing around the child, watching and murmuring, the combined voices creating a chant.

            As the child was collecting my final remains, I noticed there were another’s remains within a second ritual bowl in the hands of another small child. Simultaneously, they started on their way down a rough path, with the men and women following like sheep murmuring their inaudible chants. As the path’s destination came into existence, there was the silhouette of a man standing near an intriguing formation. The closer and closer we approached, I noticed the man was dressed for a ritual, but the man was not the important figure. Behind the man stood a “…dolmen, made up of a large single capstone that rests on two portal stones, two more orthostats, and an end stone” [1]. While appreciating the foundation built through impressive man and animal labor, the man scorched our bones. The existence of fire triggered the memory of pain and burning. For an instance, I felt the heat. Then as reality over took, I watched the fuel of my bones light up the entrance to the portal tomb. I waited in awe, as my mind was overcome with peace. The actuality of the peace was the loss of memory, awareness, and existence.

 

            Thank you for reading this short story. Obviously, not all the content in the story is factual. The dead talking might have given that away. Within the Poulnabrone Portal Tomb, there were “up to 22 individuals from the Neolithic were found” [1]. Of the individuals found, there is no link between them showing why certain people were placed in the tomb. Each of the bones were previously buried and then transported to the tomb after decomposition. There is evidence that some of the bones were scorched during the process, “possibly during a purification ritual” [2]. Finally, the bones show evidence the people between 3,800 – 3,600 BC lived short lives. “Only one adult was over the age of 40 while most died before they reached 30” [1].

 Photo by author. 

[1] “Poulnabrone Portal Tomb.” Poulnabrone Portal Tomb. http://www.ancientireland.org/poulnabrone/ (accessed June 27, 2014).

 

[2] “. Poulnabrone Tomb: Life and Death in the Burren. ” http://irisharchaeology.ie/2013/06/poulnabrone-tomb-life-and-death-in-the-burren/ (accessed June 27, 2014).