¹⁰⁶O'Sullivan, Muiris, Michael Herity, and Ursula Mattenberger. Duma na nGiall: the Mound of the Hostages, Tara. Bray, Co. Wicklow: Wordwell, 2005, pp. 243-44.

The author writes, "Eighteen radiocarbon determinations are available from human bone samples associated with the megalithic tomb, of which fourteen appear to reflect Neolithic depositions and four derive from early Bronze Age burials. Seven of the fourteen Neolithic dates refer to samples of cremated bone and seven to unburnt bone, including three samples from unburnt skulls."

O'Sullivan remarked elsewhere, "It was during this time that a remarkable ceremony took place. A ring of fires was set ablaze at the edge of the mound, coinciding spatially with the ring of burials inserted more than a thousand years earlier. The effect would have been spectacular, especially if the fires were burned at night, and the ceremony obviously marked a special moment in the life of the site, possibly the extension of burial activity into the mound or some such occasion." (O'Sullivan, Muiris. The Mound of the Hostages, Tara: a Pivotal Monument in a Ceremonial Landscape. Archaeology Ireland, Heritage Guide No. 34, 2006.)