If it weren’t for those pesky kids: the spatial segregation of children in an early medieval...

8/14/2019 If it werent for those pesky kids: the spatial segregation of children in an early medieval cemetery enclosure.

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If it werent for those pesky kids:the spatial segregation of children in an early

medieval cemetery enclosure.

Brendon Wilkins, Site Director


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How does our current thinking about boundaries

prejudice our understanding of how physical and

conceptual boundaries worked in the past?

How were the boundaries of human bodies and

personal identities policed, or deliberately broken

down in the past, and what were the consequences

of this?


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Carrowkeel, Co Galway


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Phase I AD 650-850

Phase II AD 850-1050

Phase III AD 1050-1250

Phase IV AD 1250-1450

132 individuals

40 radiocarbon dates


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Phase I 650 850 AD

37 Individuals

14% foetus 8% perinate 16% infant 16% younger child 5% adolescent

SK 72: crouched

Inhumation in ditchterminus. (UB-7423)

cal AD 682-872.


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Phase II 850 -1050AD

75 Individuals

27% foetus 7% perinate 4% neonate 27% infant

SK 33 Older Child

(UB-7482)

cal AD 857-991


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Phase III & IV 1050 - 1450AD

20 individuals

78% non adults 44% below one year No perinates/neonates Or adolescents

SK 54 Foetus (UB-7419) cal AD 1340-1396


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Clln and boundaries in the haggard in ringforts boundary fences at cross-roads

the shelter of a bush cliff ledges outside graveyards the edge of a tide on a river or sea cliff near a well

field corners townland boundaries beside marshy or wooded ground

Dennehy, E. 2003. The History of Ceallunaigh in Co. Kerry. Kerry Archaeological and

Historical Society Journal. Series 2 (2) 5-21.


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In an unkempt space of dark,clinging

grass, with stones scattered over it

here and there.

There he said, the islanders had

been accustomed to

bury suicides and un-baptised

children; a sad association,

I thought, of those who had known

nothing and those who

had known too much of life.

Flower, R. 1985 (1944). The Western Island or the Great Blasket. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.


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Age DistributionPhase Period (AD) Foetus Infant Juvenile

AdultMale

AdultFemale

Total

I 650 850 8 6 12 3 7 36

II 850 1050 24 23 25 2 - 74

III 1050 1250 3 5 5 2 1 16

IV 1250 1450 2 - - - - 2

Total37

29%

34

27%

42

33%

7

5%

8

6%

132

100%


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Evidence of enclosure;

A burial area, normally in the southeast corner;

A place-name with an ecclesiastical element;

Structural remains; A holy well within close proximity; A Bullaun stone;

carved or decorated stone cross or slab;

A townland boundary forming part of the enclosure;

Evidence for a souterrain; A pillar stone;

A founders tomb; And an associated traditional ritual or folk custom.

Ecclesiastical Enclosures

Swan, L. 1983. Enclosed ecclesiastical sites and their relevance to settlement

patterns of the first millennium A.D.In Reeves-Smyth, T. and Hamond, F. (eds.)

Landscape Archaeology in Ireland. BAR British Series 116


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Early medieval settlement and society

Wood 1821: 269.


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Landscape divisions

Ringforts and Ecclesiastical Enclosures

Distribution of Early Christian sites in the

barony of Garrycastle, Co. Offaly, highlighting

the relationship between lay and ecclesiaitical

elements of society.

Stout, M. 1997. The Irish Ringfort.

Dublin: Four Courts Press


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Early Christian tuath based on law tracts

Model of the inter-relationships

of ringfort dwelling freemen

and the mutually advantageous

links between ecclesiastical

and secular settlement.

Stout 1997: 124

Myteum 1992: 12


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Collectico Canonum Hibernensis

Compilation of Canonswritten c. AD 650.

The reluctance of

Christians to abandontheir ancestral or familialcemeteries.

Jacob and Joseph

carried from Egypt to beburried with theirancestors

OBrien, E. 1999. Post-Roman Britain to Anglo-Saxon England: Burial Practices Reviewed.

Oxford: BAR British Series 289.


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in the absence of substantial supporting evidence, it is not

permissible to claim that the hundreds of enclosed burial grounds

are the sites of early monasteries This leads to an alternativeproposition, namely that these sites were secular settlements of

small communities of the early medieval period, having their

origins in a non-Christian or pre-Christian society.

Swan, L. 1983. Enclosed ecclesiastical sites and their relevance to settlement patterns of the first millennium

A.D.In Reeves-Smyth, T. and Hamond, F. (eds.)Landscape Archaeology in Ireland. BAR British Series 116

Settlement Cemeteries?


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Segregation of Children Raunds Furnells, England

9th 11th century

Whithorn St Ninian,Scotland

8th 9th century

Rock of Cashel, Co

Tipperary12th century

Raystown, Co Meath7th -10th century


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