1993:111 - OMEY ISLAND, Gooreen and Sturakeen, Galway

Excavations carried out during winter 1992-3 and summer 1993 revealed further archaeological strata beneath those reported in earlier bulletins. The stone enclosure described in Excavations 1992, 30-31, was neither the original nor the earliest Christian enclosure on the site, as was originally suspected. Beneath it, and partly incorporated in it, were the walls of an older rectangular enclosure, with orthostatic foundations, nearly 14m long (east-west) internally and at least 8m wide. All that remained of this enclosure was the lower course of walling at its east and west ends; some of the stones in the south wall had collapsed but most had been robbed, while the entire north side of the enclosure was destroyed by sea erosion.

This enclosure contained the burials of more that 250 individuals—men, women and children—and these generally predated its construction. Further burials were found outside and underneath the level of the enclosure. The discovery of a couple of postholes along the south flank of the burial area may be an indication that the burials were originally contained within a wooden enclosure.

Virtually all the burials were extended in a west-east orientation, but some were flexed, some were reversed in orientation, with their heads at the east, and some, apparently interred at the end of the cemetery's life, were oriented north-south. The earliest burials in the cemetery were in pits. No grave markers were found in situ. In the midst of the pits was one coffin containing an adult and child, their heads at opposite ends of the box, and there were also some collections of disarticulated bone that may originally have been within boxes. Beads of red and blue glass and of bone were found with some of the children, suggesting that the cemetery belongs at or close to the interface between paganism and Christianity. Burials contained within walled surrounds and covered with lintels were confined to the upper levels inside the enclosure and although a few had been cut through by the pits of even later interments, they were generally undisturbed. The dry-stone leacht discovered in 1992 covered one such lintelled grave; although the presence of the leacht indicates that here was a special burial, worthy of veneration long after the cemetery was no longer used, the actual grave structure had been damaged by a later interment prior to the building of the leacht.The earliest burials were cut into a thin layer of brown sand containing a high density of periwinkle shells. Both the upper surface of this 'periwinkle stratum' and the surface immediately beneath it preserved traces of possible cultivation. Arcs of stones belonging to two round huts of very slight construction, each 5m or more across internally, were revealed in the layers of blown sand immediately below this stratum. A third building, which was stratified between these two round huts, was considerably more substantial. Internally, it was at least 6m across, and its walls were constructed with orthostats and were over 1m thick. The internal area of this building was reduced at some stage of its history by the insertion of a new skin of inner walling. Hearths are associated with both of its phases. The chronology and cultural context of all these buildings await elucidation.

Lower still in the site's stratigraphy and directly above bedrock was a shell midden. The surface of this was exposed over an extensive area, revealing fragmentary remains of three small, probably temporary, structures (one rectangular, two circular?) each covering an area of no more than several square metres. Some 30 sq metres of the midden were removed and wet-screened for finds. This process produced substantial amounts of cord-decorated pottery, as well as perforated bone pins, antler tools, a small flint slug-knife, rounded scrapers in flint and other material, and clear evidence of quartz tool technology. The finds suggest an early Bronze Age date for the settlement, and this is supported by two radiocarbon determinations 3529+63 BP (UB-3706) and 3724+73 BP (UB-3708).