2009:738 - 35 TOWER HILL, BORRISOKANE, Tipperary

Human skeletal remains were uncovered at No. 35 Tower Hill during the construction of a soak pit for an existing council house by North Tipperary County Council. The soak pit measured 5m west–east by 2.6m, and averaged 1.6m in depth. A post-damage impact assessment was undertaken by the writer in 2008 (Excavations 2008, No. 1197) and the site was archaeologically investigated in early 2009. Large quantities of disarticulated human skeletal remains were recovered from the spoilheaps surrounding the soak pit by both sieving and actual excavation. The sections and base of the soak pit were cleaned down and the sections were all recorded. In addition, nine in situ skeletons were either fully or partially excavated to negate any further damage to the extant skeletal remains.
A full osteoarchaeological analysis of the recovered bone from the truncated skeletons and the bone churned up in the surrounding spoilheaps indicates the remains of a minimum of eleven adults, six juveniles and two infants. A typical range of pathological lesions was present on the bones, including joint disease, metabolic conditions, trauma, infection and congenital defects. Standard dental diseases were also present, as well as evidence that one individual was a habitual clay-pipe smoker. In addition, an adult articulated dissected elbow joint was recovered underlying the remains of a young child. The adult had been suffering from an infection at the time of death and the elbow may have been dissected from the cadaver for teaching purposes. The sections of the soak pit suggest that the nineteen individuals were interred in two large pits. Cartographic evidence indicates that a fever hospital was located to the east of the site in the 19th century, and it is possible that these skeletons relate to that site. Alternatively the burials may be related to the nearby union workhouse, or to the eight earlier workhouses that were in Borrisokane prior to the founding of the official workhouse. In any case, the burials are likely to relate to a period of tremendous social stress, such as a disease outbreak or a famine.