1998:554 - TUMBEAGH BOG, Tumbeagh, Offaly

In mid-September the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit was carrying out pre-mitigation surveys for Bord na Móna in the Lemanaghan group of bogs between Clara and Ferbane in County Offaly. During a resurvey of Tumbeagh Bog a member of the field crew, Cathy Moore, discovered what were soon to be confirmed as human remains. The remains lay on the milled surface of the bog and were visible as a small flap of damaged skin with crumbs of body fat. Initial inspection showed that skeletal material was present, and a disturbed tarsal bone was recovered from the field surface.

Consultation between Dúchas, the National Monuments Service, the National Museum of Ireland, Bord na Móna and the Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit culminated in an excavation designed to recover the in situ remains; to search for ex situ human remains and artefacts; to recover any associated archaeological objects and identify any associated features; to undertake a sampling project for palaeoenvironmental purposes, which included samples for beetle, pollen and ash content analysis as well as a peat stratigraphic survey. In addition a metal-detection survey was carried out, as well as film documentation of the excavation process. The excavation was carried out in close cooperation with Dr Máire Delaney of Trinity College Dublin.

The excavation involved trowelling c. 25m of the field surface on which the remains were found; shovelling and raking of the heavy, loose peat cover of the field immediately to the west of the find field; searching by hand a nearby stockpile for redeposited material; and defining the extent of in situ human remains by the digging of regularly placed hand-dug test-pits, followed by isolation of the human remains in a block of peat around which the excavation proceeded.

The raking of the peat on the adjacent western field produced a single, decalcified rib. The stockpile investigation resulted in the discovery of fragments of human skin as well as a lumbar vertebra, a left patella and the unfused proximal epiphyses of the left and right tibiae. The retrieval of these stray bones indicated that the body had already been extensively destroyed and served to verify that it had once been complete. Hand-dug tests-pits, excavated at half-metre intervals over an area of 3m x 3.5m, resulted in the definition of the extent of the in situ remains. These consist of either a left leg, tightly flexed, or the lower parts of a right and left leg. Skin and the proximal left tibia were visible once all disturbed peat had been removed from over the remains.

Immediately adjacent to the in situ remains a number of artefacts were recovered, which include a horizontal worked roundwood running in a northerly direction away from the area of the knee, three to four short lengths of worked brushwood, and a wooden withy as well as a stake that appeared to have been driven into the peat adjacent to the knee. In addition the metal-detection survey resulted in the recovery of four tiny strips of non-ferrous metal. Three were found within 1m of the in situ remains, and the fourth c. 5m distant. All were retrieved from disturbed, loose peat. The metal-detection survey also included the adjacent fields and stockpile, but no further finds were recovered.

Once the site was cleared of artefacts a 2m-wide and 1m-deep moat was excavated around a 1m x 1m peat block in which the remains had been isolated. The moat facilitated the lifting of the remains and allowed a pollen monolith to be taken and a peat stratigraphic study of the peat deposits in which the remains lay to be carried out, as well as fulfilling the archaeological requirement of determining the presence or absence of associated archaeological features (absence in this case).

On completion of the moat excavation the 1m x 1m x 1m peat block was reduced in size to facilitate lifting. The reduced-size block, 1.2m x 0.6m x 0.5m, was secured within a wooden frame filled by expanding polyurethane foam, which hardened to form a shell around the block. The secured block was removed to the National Museum and stored in a fridge. The peat block is to be excavated later in the Museum.

Belfield, Dublin 4