IoA/BM seminar Niamh Carty

Niamh Carty: 'So violent and motley was life': possible osteological evidence for murder in medieval Ireland'

The Medieval Irish literary and annalistic sources are full of references to violence and murder during the early and later medieval period. This paper proposes that the archaeological record can augment these documentary sources. There are numerous examples of skeletons with evidence for violent trauma uncovered from both Christian cemeteries and clandestine burial places dating from Medieval Ireland. An examination of the actual osteological wounds and the cultural and archaeological context of these individuals will be undertaken to investigate if perhaps these individuals met their end by murder.