In archeology, a cist (; also kist ; ultimately from ; cognate to ) or cist grave is a small stone-built coffin-like box or

ossuary An ossuary is a chest, box, building, well, or site made to serve as the final resting place of human skeletal remains. They are frequently used where burial space is scarce. A body is first buried in a temporary grave, then after some years th ...

used to hold the bodies of the dead. In some ways, it is similar to the deeper shaft tomb. Examples occur across Europe and in the Middle East. A cist may have formerly been associated with other monuments, perhaps under a

cairn A cairn is a human-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehistory, t ...

or a long barrow. Several cists are sometimes found close together within the same cairn or barrow. Often ornaments have been found within an excavated cist, indicating the wealth or prominence of the interred individual. This old word is preserved in the Nordic languages as in Swedish and in Danish and Norwegian, where it is the word for a funerary coffin. In English the term is related to ''cistern'' and to ''chest''.

Regional examples

;England * Teffont Evias, England ;Estonia * Jõelähtme (Rebala) stone-cist graves, Harju County ;Guatemala * Mundo Perdido, Tikal, Petén Department ;Ireland * Knockmaree Dolmen,

Phoenix Park The Phoenix Park () is a large urban park in Dublin, Ireland, lying west of the city centre, north of the River Liffey. Its perimeter wall encloses of recreational space. It includes large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues, and since ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

;Israel *

Tel Kabri Tel Kabri (), or Tell al-Qahweh (), is an archaeological Tell (archaeology), tell (mound created by accumulation of remains) containing one of the largest Bronze Age, Middle Bronze Age (2,100–1,550 Common Era, BCE) Canaanite palaces in Israel ...

(Area A), Upper Galilee ;Latvia * Batariņi ;Scotland * Balblair cist, Beauly, Inverness * Dunan Aula, Craignish, Argyll and Bute * Holm Mains Farm, Inverness * Nether Mill, Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire ;Sri Lanka * Ibbankatuwa Megalithic Stones * Udaranchamadama

References

External links

Pretanic World - Chart of Neolithic, Bronze Age and Celtic Stone Structures
{{Prehistoric technology, state=expanded Burial monuments and structures Archaeology of death

Regional examples

See also

References

External links