AR01042_WODAN_Final_Report_10.pdf - The Heritage Council

4 Tulsk case study
The site of Tulsk in Co. Roscommon was subject to excavation by the Discovery Programme
between 2004 and 2009. The licensed director was Niall Brady and the excavation team largely
comprised students during 12 weeks each summer. It is presented here as a case study due to the
charcoal results, and indeed the site results, being in an advanced state of post-excavation
analysis.
Tulsk is a multi-period site within the O’Connor Roe gaelic lordship and it is this period of its
occupation that sees the most striking use of the site with the construction of a, previously
archaeologically unknown, tower house. Prior to this the site, originally a natural mound
overlooking significant lowlands and probably at the crossroads of two ancient route ways, had
prehistoric occupation only tantalizingly glimpsed at during excavation. Iron Age occupation was
also revealed before the construction of an early medieval ringfort; this rath was later raised and
then subsequently divided when the tower house was constructed to the north-western side. Ditch
fortifications were re-dug but were later built over following the final collapse of the tower. Later
medieval occupational evidence is located just off the mound while the top of the mound is
truncated during Elizabethan military garrisoning.
Although singular charcoal samples were hand-picked from the site during excavation, those that
have been entered into the WODAN database so far have been from the environmental
processing. The site was systematically sampled so as to ensure at least one sample from each
context and some significant contexts, such as the main fills of the external ditch and the base of
the garderobe chute, were 100% sampled. Almost all samples were then floated in the field
resulting in charcoal fragments in both the residue and as part of the floated material. As part of
the post-excavation process the charcoal was picked from these dried samples and was then
passed on to Ingelise Stuijts for analysis. To date the majority of these samples have been
analyzed and entered into the WODAN database and manipulation of the data is now possible.
The sampling technique of the Tulsk samples makes it particularly relevant because it includes all
contexts and not just the ‘interesting’ data. Although this has led to many samples being
comprised of just a few fragments, in many samples a broader picture of species selection can be
seen. Whether the larger samples have also managed to produce saturated results, whereby the
limit of species present is deemed to have been reached after a certain amount of counting with
no new species identified, remains to be seen. However the discipline during analysis necessary
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