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Charles E. Orser, Jr.
The summer is now behind us, and our excavation at the village on Aughamore, Ballykilcline townland was a smashing success! We began on June 29 and stopped five weeks later, on July 31. The excavators were 21 archaeology students representing 13 different universities, from Alaska to Florida. All of them were enrolled in Illinois State University's regular field school in historical archaeology, which I direct. As in other years, I was assisted in the field by Katherine Hull and David Ryder.
The portion of the village we excavated is owned by J.J. and Dolores Neary, who today live in the nineteenth-century glebe house on the property. The excavation was conducted with their kind permission and complete support. Those of you who have visited the old village know how wonderful J.J. and Dolores are! Those of you who do not know them, really must meet them!
This excavation was conducted as part of my wider archaeological effort to study the culture and history of Ireland's tenant farmers immediately before and during the Great Hunger. Our selection of this site for study was independent of Scally's THE END OF HIDDEN IRELAND. Actually, the site was suggested as a possible research locale by local resident, John Leavy. John has been a tremendous supporter of ours over the past five years and we would be much worse off without his involvement. As it turned out, John was right: the site was almost perfect from an archaeological standpoint because it was largely undisturbed since the evictions of 1847!
Prior to our excavations, as in previous year, Kevin Barton of the Applied Geophysics Unit of the National University of Ireland, Galway, made a detailed topographical map of the site, and conducted a series of subsurface geophysical surveys over the site. As before, I used the results of his tests in conjunction with the 1837 Ordnance Survey map to help guide the location of the excavation units.
The excavation units measured 1x2 meters, and we excavated 35 of them. The students collected 1,134 artifacts from these windows into the soil, with all of the artifacts dating to the 1800-1847 period. The breakdown, by material of manufacture, is 626 pieces of ceramics, 402 pieces of glass, 62 pieces of iron and brass, and 44 other objects, like bone, whitewashed stone, and charcoal samples. Included in the collection are buttons, pieces of smoking pipes (including one stamped "..PEAL" for REPEAL), and other objects used every day by the people of Ballykilcline. The students also found sections of two stone walls, presumably from the cabins in the village.
I am now beginning the time-consuming work of analysis here in Illinois. So, stay tuned for more findings in the future! I'm now planning to go back to the same site next summer and pick up where we left off. The soils of Ballykilcline still have much to teach us, and my students and I are eager to learn!
Phone: 309.438.2271
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