AR01055_EMAP_Gazetteer_of_Sites_4-2_10.pdf - The Heritage ...

Galway
from the early medieval period to modern times and include an early iron looped pin, a bone
knife? handle, a hammer stone, three iron knives and quantities of unstratified slag. Two pits
were dug into the yellow boulder clay inside the house; and one of these had been used for
the disposal of butchery waste.
Over fifty pieces of slag was scattered across the site with the vast majority recovered from
the areas of the three houses. Iron slag, crucible sherds and a possible furnace bottom were
found within the dark humus layers from House I and III. One large crucible from House III
had traces of copper on its inner surface plus a thick glassy deposit. No accurate dates can
be assigned to these industrial features though it is possible that some may belong to the
early medieval period. Numerous forged iron nails were also uncovered across the site and
many of these are probably medieval in date.
Other craft-working evidence is indicated by various finds including a possible early medieval
socketed chisel from beneath the sod on the west side of the church and a possible loomweight
from the dark humus in the collapse of the enclosure wall to the north of House I.
Fragments of seven rotary querns and concentrations of charred cereal grains also indicate
cereal-processing at the site in the medieval periods. A large animal bone assemblage was
recovered and consisted primarily of cattle followed by sheep/goat, pig, horse, dog and cat.
The bone was too mixed and unstratified to provide meaningful information about the
economy of the site. Significant quantities of shell were also recovered indicating that its
medieval occupants were also exploiting maritime resources.
A large collection of post-medieval finds confirm that the site was probably occupied by
squatters till the eighteenth or nineteenth century. The post-medieval pottery from the
church, the surrounding cemetery and the Houses included Buckley-type storage vessels,
Staffordshire slipware and sherds of modern white earthenware. Some other notable postmedieval
finds included a bronze token dated to between 1653-1679, a possible Jew’s harp, a
seventeenth century horse shoe, window glass and wine bottles. Seventeenth and early
eighteenth century clay pipe pieces were also recovered across the site. The cemetery was
also re-used as a children’s burial-ground or cillin in the last few centuries, perhaps after the
site had ceased to be occupied by squatters. A number of infant and neonate burials were
uncovered in the cemetery; at least four of these infant burials were found along the
northern side of the nave and chancel, one in the northwest of the nave and one in the
chancel.
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