Early medieval human burials and insect remains from Kildimo, Co. Limerick (original) (raw)

2012, Journal of Irish Archaeology, Vol. 20 (2011), 65-76

Human skeletal remains were uncovered during localised quarrying works on farmland in Kildimo, Co. Limerick, in the summer of 2005. Subsequent archaeological work entailed the complete excavation of two skeletons, the recovery of disarticulated bones, the recording of two other truncated graves and an overall site plan.The two excavated skeletons were a double burial of a 12–14-year-old possible female and a 6–9-year-old child.The two truncated graves contained the remains of a possible adult and another young child.The remains of two other adults were identified in the disarticulated bones.The site represents a previously unrecorded cemetery.An early medieval radiocarbon date was obtained for burial 1 (young adolescent female). Insect remains were visible in the abdominal areas of the double burial and this soil was sampled.They were discovered to be the remarkably well-preserved disarticulated remains of blowflies, who generally feed on fresh cadavers of humans and animals, as well as on other decomposed animal products and excrement.The presence of these fly remains on the two young bodies would indicate that they were exposed for some time above ground before burial.The bodies were buried to a depth of 0.5m and blowflies rarely burrow to that depth, nor do they generally feed on already decaying corpses.They can, however, complete their life cycle below ground, so the bodies may have been buried while the flies were in their pupal stage, where they later hatched out and died in situ.The reason why the burial of these two individuals was delayed until decomposition set in is open to speculation. In addition, there are indications that these early medieval burials may be Christian in origin, and may be linked with an Early Christian site, perhaps associated with St Díoma, for whom the townland is named.The extremely unusual finding of the insects greatly increases our understanding of the pre-burial history of the skeletal remains and highlights the value of integrated specialist approaches to archaeological excavation.