Contact name: Jonny Geber

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

During the archaeological excavations of the “Wicklow Port Access Town Relief”-project in 2007, a completely unknown cemetery and the foundations of a church was discovered. The majority of the burials appear to date to the early medieval period (AD 600-1100), but some examples of later burials (up until at least AD 1600) was also found. About half of the cemetery, the area affected by the road scheme, was excavated.

The bones were in very poor condition, and what remained of many skeletons were just a stain in the soil and some teeth. Teeth enamel is the hardest material in the skeleton, and dentitions are therefore usually the best preserved parts.

Although the bones were poorly preserved, several interesting findings came out from the osteological analysis. A total of 186 burials were excavated, of which 37% contained remains of children and 62% remains of adults. The mean male stature was 166cm (5ft 5 inches) and the female stature was 161cm (5ft 3 ½ inches).

Some of the skeletal pathologies that were identified included middle ear infection (mastoiditis), bone infection (periostitis) and possible scurvy. The antemortem trauma that were identified included one arm fracture, one foot fracture, one rib fracture and one hand fracture. Two individuals also suffered from spondylolysis of the last lumbar vertebrae, which is a relatively common stress fracture of the lower spine, even today.

Several individuals had visible horizontal lines on the teeth, a defect known as enamel hypoplasia. This is an indication of poor health during childhood, often attributed to both malnutrition and acute infection. From the location of these defects, it could be determined that the majority of these stress periods occurred between the first and second year and between the fourth and sixth years of life.