County: Galway Site name: FALSE BAY, Truska
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 94E0128
Author: Finbar McCormick, Dept. of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, Queen's University Belfast
Site type: Midden
Period/Dating: Bronze Age (2200 BC-801 BC)
ITM: E 457981m, N 746225m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.446943, -10.138012
A large number of coastal settlement sites are presently exposed along this coastal area. In 1992 a project was undertaken for the purpose of dating some of the exposed middens by the Dept. of Archaeology and Palaeoecology, the Queen's University of Belfast (Excavations 1992, 32). The dates indicated that the area had been occupied between the Bronze Age and medieval times.
The earliest dated site was at False Bay. This site was located about 100m inland from the high tide mark. Food vessel pottery and chert scrapers were found to be eroding out of the site surface, and the initial sampling provided a calibrated radiocarbon date of a 2022–1894 BC. Excavation indicated that the midden was a temporary settlement site. No buildings, or even postholes, were noted although a few shallow gullies and pits were present. Occupation was centred around three hearth sites and excavation provided a large quantity of pottery and environmental data (see F. McCormick 1995 'False Bay, Co. Galway, in the Bronze Age', Archaeology Ireland, 9 (1), 12-13).
