Osteoarchaeological Analysis of Skeletal Material From Ballyhanna
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The t erm ‘disarticula t ed bone’ r e f ers t o s k ele t al e lemen t s t ha t o v er time become disassociated from their primary context as a result of a variety of factors, including animal activity , e rosi on and, not l ea s t, huma n beha viour—such asgrave-diggi ng. I n the ca s e of th e di s a r ticulated bone as s em blage recov ered dur i ng the exca va tion of a me dieval chur ch and cemete r y a t Ba l l yha nna , Co. Doneg a l (Ó Donnchad ha200 7; Ma cDonag h, thisvol ume ), the latter is most certainly one of the primary contributing factors leading to the large quantity of disarticulated human bone identified. As with many cemeteries in use over the course of numerous generations, the burial density at Ballyhanna was found to be very high, with consistent intercutting of burials at differing intervals as a result of continual reuse of the cemete r y to ma ke wa y f or new interments (I l l us. 1). T he res ul ting di s a r ticul a ted s keleta l ma ter ial includesboth a dul t a nd juveni l e bone fragm ents and teeth, as well a s non- huma n (a nima l ) bone. I t i s the p urpose of t his pa pe r to outline some of the preliminary findings of ongoing osteoarchaeological analysis of this material and to illustrate how data derived can further increase our knowledge of the health and lifestyle of the Ballyhanna medieval pop ula ti on.To date , a ppro xi ma tel y 70% of th e di s a rticula ted a s s emb l a ge has been a nalysed. I t is imp ortant to em pha sis e tha t the res ul ts reported below are provisiona l pe ndi ng completion of this work. Methodology The p r esence o f disa rt icula t ed or ‘commin g led ’ s k ele t al elements in an y hu ma n b one ass emb l a ge prese nt s chal l enges f or th e os teoarchaeologi st, beyond the s tanda rd os teol ogical investigation of articulated remains. During the excavation at Ballyhanna the disarticulated material was collected and bagged according to individual excavation areas within the cemetery. T he fir s t ste p of the s orting proces s wasto s epa rate a ll ma ter ia l a ccor ding to age group (in this case adult from immature bone) and relative completeness, and in turn into a number of categories representing the components of the human skeleton (longbone, ha nd/ foot, etc.). To da te , a tota l of 4,312 complete and rel a ti ve l y comp l ete a dul t bonesand 935 immature (juvenile) complete and relatively complete bones have been identified. I nforma tion relati ng to e l ement, side (L/ R ) a nd a ge were ente red into a s keletal i nve ntory to a id furthe r inte r pre ta tion of the da ta . T he res ult i ng figure s ill us tra ted a defini ti ve predisposition towards the presence of complete foot bones (44.3% of total complete elem ents ), fol lowed b y hand bones (22.4% of total complete e l em ents) ( I l l us . 2). Exhumation practice has been cited previously as a factor affecting the variability of skeletal elem ent reco ve r y in comm i ngled m a terial (U belaker 200 2). One pos sible explana tion in relation to Ballyhanna may be that care was taken during reuse of the cemetery not to disturb existing burials by avoiding, as much as possible, the removal of the larger, more 143 1 4 . Pr e l i mi na r y os te oarcha e ol ogi cal a na l ys i s of the di s a r ti cul a te d huma n s ke l e ta l mater i a l fro m B a l l yha nna , Co. Done ga l Ró i s í n M c C art hy
