County: Galway Site name: Culfin
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 06E0644
Author: Finbar McCormick and Emily Murray, School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology, QUB, Belfast, BT7 1NN, Co. Antrim, and Michael Gibbons, Market
Site type: Shell midden
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 474478m, N 763821m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.609172, -9.896875
The shell midden at Culfin, Lettergesh, was first noted by Michael Gibbons while conducting an EIS in 2003 (Gibbons and Gibbons 2004). The site was visited in early February 2006 and a sample of the eroding broken dog whelk shells (Nucella lapillus) was collected for 14C dating. It had been speculated that the midden may be Mesolithic (Gibbons and Gibbons 2004), but the radiocarbon result indicates that the dog whelk horizon is early medieval and dates to AD 413–611 at the 2-sigma calibrated age range (1819635 bp; UB-6967). This correlates with the recorded range of 14C dates for broken dog whelk middens from other sites in counties Galway, Mayo and Donegal (unpublished data).
A rescue excavation of the midden was subsequently carried out during the period 10–13 July. The midden is exposed in an eroding section, c. 1.4m in height, and a small trench was opened (1.8m by 0.5m) directly above the section face. The broken dog whelk horizon was contained by loose sterile sand and overlay two humic-rich horizons with inclusions of limpet and cockle shells, fire-cracked stones, occasional bone fragments and charred hazelnut shells, as well as a small ash lens representing an area of in situ burning. A sample of charred hazelnut shells from one of these layers was radiocarbon dated and returned a calibrated age range of 197–037 cal bc (2086634 bp; UB-7203). This provides a terminus post quem for the dog whelk activity at the site and further evidence of Iron Age activity in this part of the country (Iron Age 14C dates have also been recorded from middens at Mannin Bay on the Slyne Head peninsula – McCormick et al. 1996).
During the period of the excavation, an unstratified soapstone disc was found in the vicinity of the midden and it has been deposited in the NMI (Accession number 2006:62).
References
Gibbons, M. and Gibbons, M. 2004 Dyeing in the Mesolithic? Archaeology Ireland 17(4), 28–31.
McCormick, F., Gibbons, M., McCormac, F.G. and Moore, J. 1996 Bronze Age to medieval coastal shell middens near Ballyconneely, Co. Galway. Journal of Irish Archaeology 7, 77–84.
