The origins of the Irish Cillin: the segregation of infant burials within an early medieval enclosure at Carrowkeel, Co. Galway.

1

The

origins

of

the

Irish

Cillin:

the

segregation

of

infant

burials

within

an

early

medieval

enclosure

at

Carrowkeel,

Co.

Galway.

Brendon

Wilkins,

Ireland.

Paper

presented

to

TAG,

Columbia

University,

2008.

In

later

and

post

medieval

Ireland,

unbaptised

children

were

rarely

buried

in

consecrated

ground.

Strangers,

suicides,

or

unrepentant

murderers

were

also

treated

differently

in

death,

interred

in

Cillin

cemeteries

-

liminal,

clandestine

places

associated

with

boundaries

in

the

landscape,

and

often

sited

within

early

medieval

settlement

enclosures

that

had

long

since

fallen

out

of

use.

The

origin

of

this

practice

is

often

assumed

to

be

associated

with

the

adoption

of

Christianity,

and

the

LimbusInfantus

of

the

medieval

church.

Baptism

was

the

necessary

threshold

through

which

all

must

pass

before

entering

Christian

society,

and

without

which

incorporation

into

the

society

of

the

dead

was

impossible.

This

paper

assesses

the

origins

of

this

practice

drawing

on

a

recently

excavated

early

medieval

settlement

cemetery

at

Carrowkeel,

Co.

Galway.

The

cemetery

was

in

use

for

over

700

years,

and

the

spatial

segregation

of

children

can

be

recognised

in

the

early

phases

of

the

site.

Was

this

segregation

a

precursor

to

the

later

medieval

practice

of

Cillin

burial?

Did

the

adoption

of

Christianity

elaborate

the

pre

-

existing

boundaries

of

an

early

medieval

society

obsessed

with

status

in

life

and

its

continuity

into

death?

To

understand

how

these

nuanced

conceptual

and

physical

boundaries

worked

in

the

past,

this

paper

begins

by

addressing

the

boundaries

that

divide

our

discipline

in

the

present.

1.

T

HE

S

ITE

Carrowkeel in County Galway resonates with the spatial and bodily boundariesaddressed by this morning’s session. Carrowkeel was a multi‐period enclosureexcavated on behalf of Galway County Council in advance of the N6 Galway toBallinasloe road scheme in the Republic of Ireland (Slide 1).

•

The main phase was a substantial early medieval enclosure ditchrepresented by a large V‐shaped ditch that measured 65 m east by 47 mwest.

•

About a third of the enclosure remained beyond the limit of excavation, andin this area the remnants of a substantial internal bank were preservedbeneath a 19th century dry stone field boundary.

•

It contained a cemetery in the south‐east corner with 132 predominantlysupine east‐west burials.

2

•

And the population comprised a disproportionate percentage of non‐adults,infant and foetal remains.

These infant and foetal remains were topsoil burials barely buried beneath thesurface, and looking back over my field notes, we were labouring under an illusion.During the excavation we assumed, I think quite reasonably given the lack of cleargrave cuts, that there were three phases of cemetery use (Slide 2).

•

A primary phase represented by a crouched inhumation found in theterminus of a ditch.

•

A secondary phase of supine west‐east orientated burials, probablyrepresenting the use of the site as an early Christian enclosure;

•

And a final phase of exclusively children that belonged to a

Cillin

Phase of thesite.

In later medieval Ireland right up into the mid 1960s, un‐baptised children were not permitted to be buried in consecrated ground, but interred in

Cillin

cemeteries ‐liminal, clandestine places often associated with physical and conceptual boundariesin the landscape. To borrow a phrase I’ve heard once or twice myself, if you’renames not down, you’re not getting in.In fact we now think it was neither of those things. We took 40 radiocarbon datesfrom the cemetery and they turned the original phasing on its head. The cemeterywas in use from the 7

th

to the 15

th

century, and far from being a later post medievalphase of activity, the spatial segregation of children can actually be recognised in theearly phases of the site, much earlier than the mainstream opinion for the

Cillin

burial.This led us to question: Perhaps infant segregation in the early medieval period at Carrowkeel was a precursor to the more general, historically documented latermedieval practice of

Cillin

burial? Perhaps the adoption of Christianity elaboratedthe pre‐existing boundaries of an early medieval society obsessed with maintainingstatus divisions in life and their continuity into death? Or perhaps this was neither a

Cillin

nor an ecclesiastical enclosure, but something else that defied easyclassification.I’ll address these issues shortly but now let’s have a look at the evidence, beforeassessing how current thinking on boundaries connects with this particular site.

2.

T

HE

FIELD

EVIDENCE

Carrowkeel was situated on the western brow of an east/west ridge of higherground overlooking a known area of early medieval settlement, consisting of cashels, a souterrain, house sites and a field system approximately 150 metres away

3

(Slide 3 & 4). The enclosure had been identified on the first edition OS map dated to1838, though not on subsequent map surveys, indicating that it had been ploughedaway or levelled during agricultural improvement in the 19th century. A geophysicalsurvey prior to test trenching identified a series of anomalies interpreted aspotential ditches, and this turned out to be multiperiod enclosure and cemetery sitewith the main phase dating to the early medieval period.There were three main sub‐phases recognised in the ditch and bank sections. Theseincluded:

•

A construction phase, when a substantial 1.5 m deep V‐shaped ditch wascut, and up‐cast material deposited as an internal bank.

•

Followed by a use phase, when bank material initially slumped back intothe ditch quite quickly, but then stabilised with a vegetation layer.

•

And a final phase when the ditch was deliberately backfilled with largestones and boulders, probably as a result of field clearance.The cemetery contained 132 individuals, and it was located in the south‐east cornerof the enclosure, partly enclosed by an internal double‐ditch. As the incidence of burials increased toward the edge of the site, the cemetery could have continuedbeyond the limit of excavation towards the brow of the hill. In symmetry with thechanging phasing defined for the main enclosure ditch, four sub‐phases wereidentified in the cemetery area.The phase I assemblage comprised 37 individuals, and coincides with the dating forthe construction of the enclosure, and during this phase this part of the burial areawas used for organised disposal of predominantly women and children. Breakingdown as such, 70% of these individuals were non‐adults.The second Phase of the cemetery dates from the mid 9

th

to the 11

th

century, andcontained 75 individuals, and 93% of these were non‐adult. This relates to what wecalled the ‘use’ phase of the enclosure, when erosion of the main ditch stabilised,and the cemetery contained the largest proportion of very young children.Beyond this point, the organisation within this part of the cemetery breaks down,and this mirrors the final sub‐phase of the enclosure and gradual backfilling of theditch with field clearance debris.In cemetery Phase III there are 18 individuals, and a much more even spread of agecategories than was recognised in earlier phases, although non‐adults accounted for78% of this phase.And only two individuals were attributed to cemetery Phase IV, dated to the 15

th

century, indicating that the cemetery was in the process of abandonment.