Bective excavations Blog

With only three days left we are all working very diligently, through the cold rain that fell much of the day. Our efforts were rewarded when Auriel Robinson found a 15th/16th century spoon and an iron knife while tidying up the section face in cutting E. She will be back tomorrow to find the rest of the table setting. Planning took place in cutting B and in cutting A the cobbled area is all but cleared. In the afternoon, Kevin O’Brien of the Office of Public Works gave a master class on architectural survey. Shannon, a film maker from Ohio, via the Houston Film school in NUI Galway, spent the day with the IAFS participants preparing a short documentary.

A Bronze spoon from the fifteenth/sixteenth century, showing in the section face..

Matthew and Áine planning in Cutting B while film maker Shannon looks on.

Kevin O'Brien explains the intricacies of architectural survey to the IAFS students in the Cloister of Bective Abbey

Today the IAFS students went to the CRDS main office near Greenanstown to wet-sieve our soil samples. Matthew and Geraldine had planned a quiet day drawing section, but that was not to be. When they got to the site the found a group of eager volunteers who wanted to ‘dig’ the site. All the squares hummed with industry and great progress was made. The find of the day was a Fionnuala Parnell’s  shroud pin. It was discovered in the post-medieval pit in the corner of cutting E, where a human skull had been found on Friday last.

The 'post pads' of our 'guest house' in cutting B. These substantial masonry plinths would have supported a large building.

Important visitors to the site; Hugh Conaghy, Hugh Young, Nora Conaghy and Bernie Condon.

A busy day on the site.

Volunteers on Monday were (from left to right) Fionuala, Douglas, Irene, Michelle and Hugh Young (at the top), Mark, Bernard and Philomena.

Can’t get enough of the site. Geraldine brought her daughter Nóra and Paul Woods to Bective to photograph a selection of the finds.

Medieval floor tiles.

Selection of medieval pottery.

Medieval slates.

A selection of medieval nails.

Metal finds.

Post-medieval pottery.

Photographer Paul Woods at his field studio on Sunday.

Nóra with site mascot Paud. Paud even works Sundays.

Liam shows Siobháin the glories of the planning frame.

Today we found our first piece of Saintonge pottery, within the interior of our masonry building (the ‘guesthouse’). The sherd came from a rich charcoal and ash layer which the IAFS students will wet sieve on Monday. Watch this space. The cobbled surface was cleaned and planned. The ‘bank’ in cutting in is a much thicker layer than first thought. It will take a few more days to reach the bottom.

The cobble surface after the removal of household waste.

Young archaeologist Peter Lacey, no relation to Hugh De.

Today we had a visits of some key specialists who assisted in the identification of our pottery, bone and environmental finds. Roasanne Meenan, post-medieval pottery specialist, took the finds personnel through some of the pottery that came up in the upper layers of the cuttings. Then Fiona Beglane gave an inspiring seminar on the identification of animal bones. We have rats and cats (no elephants), horses, cattle, sheep, birds, pigs. We removed of the last of the medieval waste and a sample will be examined on Monday for plants, seeds and fishbones. A human skull was recovered in the pit in the corner of cutting E where John had found a clay pipe and knife. We celebrated the birthday of Joanne, the finds analyst for CRDS, keeping everyone honest.

Post-medieval pottery expert, Rosanne Meenan, goes through the finds with Stephanie.

Bone expert, Fiona Beglane, showing the hip bone is connected to the leg bone.

The 'men who know' in cutting B; Nicky Mallon, Matthew and Tim Stout.

Maureen Finn and Nicky Mallon, dynamic volunteers from Drogheda.

Sarah from Drakestown, County Louth, and Grace from the Philippines, troweling.

The wall has turned out to be at least two stone footings for supporting a great timber structure. Perhaps this is the remains of a guesthouse, which would be a great discovery. Some of the students were metal detecting the spoil heap to be on the safe side. Sarah found the skeleton of a small animal that might be a cat. She calls it skinny’. The long cutting across the ditch should be finished tomorrow, all going well.

To be sure to be sure. Siobháin metal detects the spoil heap to ensure that nothing has been missed.

The wooden skirt, what the fashionable archaeologist is wearing this season.

Plan B today. Rain stopped play. We headed off to the Boyne valley in search of our Cistercians. At the top of Knowth passage tomb we looked at the remains of a Cistercian grange (farm) and to Newgrange, site of another Cistercian grange . Here Professor O’Kelly found evidence for medieval cultivation ridges. Shannon, a filmaker from Ohio, came today to begin filming for a documentary on the Irish Archaeological Field school. We are hoping for good weather tomorrow so we can follow the masonry wall.

The sodden Irish Archaeological Field School at Knowth Passage Tomb.

Finally, under the stony layer and beneath a mortar spread, Mark came upon masonry. It looks like the corner of a structure that could be a house, maybe even a byre dwelling? Other than steady progress and a new piece of tile, the highlight of the day was a visit to the site by Senior Archaeologist (National Monuments Service) Conleth Manning. He inspected the cuttings and viewed our many finds. He was able to solve the mystery of the ‘CRO…’ that was detected on one of the tiles. It is part of a tile which in full would read ‘Crom Abu’. The Kildare Fitzgeralds took as their cry Crom abu, from the great Geraldine castle of  Croom in Limerick. This revelation has highlighted a link between Bective and the FitzGeralds  of Kildare.

Con Manning writes: Bective is one of the main sources for the tiles with the arms of the Earl of Kildare. There is a complete one in the Heraldic museum from Bective and others in the National Museum. There are two variations, both from Bective, one has the initials G and E added at each side apparently for Garret Mór and his wife. They date from around 1500. Garret Mór (the Great Earl of Kildare), who died in 1513 had lots of land in Meath including some major manors such as Portlester (near Balivor), Ardmulchan, Moylagh, etc. The Kildare Rental has 10 pages of lands that they controlled in Meath, so he probably did finance works at Bective. The tiles have CROM ABO and a bit in medieval French on them. Tom Fanning’s book has both related designs complete. One of the abbots, James of Castlemartin (which is in Co. Kildare), was pardoned in 1488 for taking part in the rebellion of Lambert Simnel. Kildare himself was also involved in this and so they may have been politically connected also.

Stop Press!: It has just emerged that a previous communiqué from tile expert Kieran Campbell should have alerted us to the ‘CRO’ tile’s significance. He wrote on 6 July:

There are only 8 tile designs known previously from Bective Abbey, 3 line-impressed (L71?, L73 and L79) and 5 relief (R29, R51, R52, R56 and R58). The new find [our first tile] does not match any of these five relief designs or, it seems, any of the other 78 relief designs recorded by Eames and Fanning (1988). It is not unusual, in fact it is almost the norm, for new designs to come to light on excavations producing medieval floor tiles. The five previous designs include two bearing the Geraldine arms and the initials G and E, with the Geraldine motto SI DIEV PLET CROM ABO in a circular band; the other three are from four-tile designs (two circular; one hexagonal). The armorial tiles are ‘thought to refer to the second marriage of Garret More Fitzgerald (G) to Elizabeth St John (E) and to have been commissioned before his death in 1513′ (ibid 46). All the tiles should be contemporary and I would expect your tile probably is also (Eames, E. and Fanning, T. 1988 Irish Medieval Tiles. Dublin).

Mark and Rachel display the corner of the newly revealed masonry.

Con Manning inspects the excavation.

This was the most exciting day of the dig so far. In the morning, a crew from RTÉ led by producer Niall Martin arrived to film a day in the life of an excavation. They sure brought us luck. Just after setting up their camera a very unusual bronze pin was uncovered in the basal layer of cutting C. Then, as if all that wasn’t enough excitement, Minister Martin Mansergh, TD from Tipperary South and Minister of State for the Office of Public Works, came to inspect the excavation and view the abbey. He was accompanied by his private secretary Suzanne Mitchell, Dermot Burke, Principal Officer at the Office of Public Works, and Ana Dolan, senior National Monuments architect. Towards the end of the day we even found a wall near where the bronze pin turned up. Finally, and sadly, Mark Kelly who was supervisor on the site bid us farewell and transferred the trowel of authority to Liam who will be CRDS supervisor for the next two weeks.

Bronze double spiral pin.

Cliadhbh Ó Gibne (famed Donore boat builder) just after he discovered the Bective double spiral pin.

Mark and Sinéad digging down to the wall.

The medieval wall.

RTÉ cameraman films a scene in Cutting E.

Producer Niall Martin stages an elaborate scene for the short segment to be shown on August 24th (Photo: Irene Carroll).

Finds are shown to the film crew (Photo: Irene Carroll)

RTÉ film crew examine finds from the site (Richard Foley).

RTÉ producer talks with the Irish Archaeological Field School.

'You are so busted', Paudge (our mascot) steals a breadroll.

Minister Martin Mansergh and Dermot Burke of the Office of Public Works discuss the excavation.

Dermot Burke, Suzanne Mitchell, Geraldine Stout, Martin Mansergh and Ana Dolan at Bective Abbey.

Mansergh, Geraldine Stout and Burke in the abbey cloister (Richard Foley).

Martin Mansergh meets Donal from Grange Bective, a nearby townland (Richard Foley).

Geraldine presents a bottle of whisky to Mark who passes on the trowel of command to Liam (centre), the new supervisor on the site.

Photographer Richard Foley took the following photos at the site on Friday:

Cloister arches.

Bective Bridge

Bective Abbey, the album cover.

Tools.

We had a good day’s work and the weather was warm and dry. It was just beautiful. More progress was made in bottoming the squares. A lot of pottery came up in all the cuttings. Thursday is field trip day and today we went to Trim Castle and had an excellent tour of Ireland’s largest medieval castle. We also visited the site of Mark Kelly’s recent excavations (for CRDS) in the vicinity of the Cathedral. To finish up, a fashion show/fancy dress was held back on the site of the excavation, organised by Erica Peron and Shannon Pate.

Rachel Barret (Archivist, Archaeological Survey of Ireland) inspects the cuttings at the close of day.

The Irish Archaeological Field School's visit to Trim Castle. David, our guide, shows us the castle chapel.

After our field trip, Neill gives us an impromptu concert in the cloister of Bective Abbey.