2005:657 - TUAM: Galway Road, Galway

Pre-development testing was carried out on 7 March 2005 at a site in advance of a planning application for its development, at Galway Road, Tuam, Co. Galway. Testing of the site in November 2004 uncovered a number of disarticulated human bones within a wall foundation near the northern end of the site (Excavations 2004, No. 709). The wall foundation, which also contained modern pottery sherds, appeared to be part of a terrace of buildings which extended to the east of the site. The site was located within the archaeological constraint for the town of Tuam, adjacent to the medieval St Mary’s Cathedral.

Two trenches (E and F) were excavated (by machine) either side of Trench A (excavated in the initial phase of testing) to further assess the wall foundation from which the human bone was recovered. Trench E was located to the west of Trench A and measured 4.6m long, 1–1.2m wide and 0.95–1.4m deep. Trench F was located to the east of Trench A and measured 4.3m long, 1–1.2m wide and 0.4–1.25m deep.

Below the concrete in both trenches was a layer of cobbles (Trench F only) and loose rubble fill, which contained animal bone fragments and modern artefacts. Below the rubble fill was dark-brown/black friable silt loam which contained animal bone fragments and oyster shell. Under this was loose grey sand and gravel and dark-grey firm clay. The wall foundation was visible in both trenches below the rubble fill. It consisted of loose rubble with occasional red brick and measured 0.5–0.7m wide (max.) and 0.5–1.1m high. One course of wall above the foundation was visible in Trench F. The foundation contained animal bone fragments and was located above the firm clay and the loose sand and gravel. Along the north-north-west side of the wall in Trench F was redeposited mottled grey firm clay which contained disarticulated human and animal bone. It was found below the rubble fill and above the sand and gravel.

Of the total number of 87 bones retrieved from the site, 27 fragments (31%) were determined to be human while 55 (63%) were identified as animal bones from one of three species: cattle, horse or sheep/goat.

It was determined that the human bone was from one individual, probably a young adult male, of unknown stature who showed traces of periostitis. It is possible that this individual was buried somewhere else but that the skeleton, or parts of the skeleton, was disturbed during earlier excavation work, with the result that it was dislocated and scattered. This might be the reason why not all the anatomical elements from both the lower extremities were retrieved. There was nothing on the bones that could indicate the cause of death.

It was possible to interpret the anatomical units of cattle and sheep/goat retrieved as butchering waste from animals that were slaughtered and butchered on the site. It was also possible that some of this food debris was mixed with ‘workshop’ waste. The horse in the bone material was an older individual. It is possible that it was slaughtered because it was old or due to a disease. Unfortunately the bone sample was too small to assess the site with any certainty, but the assemblage could be interpreted as a butchery site. This suggestion was supported by the fact that the building (currently a residence) at the end of the terrace adjacent to the site was once, according to its owner, a butcher’s shop.

The testing revealed evidence of modern activity only. Only modern artefacts were recovered. The stratigraphy was the same as that revealed during the previous phase of testing. The wall and wall foundation were part of the same wall uncovered during the earlier testing at the site, i.e. the rear wall of a building, which was part of the terrace which fronts onto the Galway Road and which originally extended into this site. The first edition of the OS 6-inch map from 1838 appeared to show the terrace continuing onto this site. This evidence, along with the modern artefacts found in its foundation during the initial phase of testing, appeared to date the wall to the 18th or early 19th century.

The disarticulated human bone fragments were found in redeposited material alongside the wall and therefore probably dated to the construction of the wall. The human bone fragments found during the first phase of testing were found within the same wall foundation. The presence of disarticulated human bone fragments within the redeposited material along the wall was unlikely to have been the result of the wall having been constructed over a burial; rather, it could be explained by the rubble foundation material having been sourced nearby, possibly in the adjacent graveyard.

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