Preliminary report on the third season of archaeological excavations at Bective Abbey, County Meath, 2011 (E4028)

Bective2011

 We arrived early on site to complete the last bit of planning and to spend some quite time contemplating on what this season had uncovered. Most of the team worked at organising equipment in the cottage and processing the last of the finds. We welcomed some last minute visitors including Loreto Guinan, Heritage officer for County Meath and Marie Bourke, keeper of the National Gallery with her husband Barry. Marie also proved to be a great goal- keeper after lunch when we had our soccer match. The Office of Public Works came to backfill our site and we are very grateful to them for that. In the evening we had a wonderful barbecue at nearby Bective Mill organised by a great friend of the project, Oliver Delany. There was plenty of ceol and craic with specially penned songs from both Oisin and Noel. Have a listen to these on the Bective Abbey project podcasts. The co-directors would like to thank the team for an excellent season. Roll on 2012!

Excavation crew take their last look into cutting H.

Last minute recording.

Jordan (standing centre) cuts her farewell cake before moving on to a prehistoric excavation in Cyprus. Loreto Guinan (sitting centre) visits the site on the final day. Loreto is the Heritage Officer for Meath County Council.

Noel and rob take out the core of the tower revealing the drain running beneath it.

The 2011 excavation at Bective abbey told us a great deal about the building sequence in the south precinct. The oldest building we have uncovered this season is the south- west corner of a well-built masonry structure with a paved drain running through it into a yard. There is evidence for intense burning inside this building suggesting that it may have been for industrial use or that it may have burnt down. In it we found a range of medieval pottery, local and French with textile, bronze and oyster shells. This building stood next to an open-sided, slate-roofed barn with oak uprights where the Cistercian community stored their cereal, ploughs and kiln. Some of the cereal found its way into the outside drain. The monastic community constructed another masonry building to the west, which cut through kiln waste. Subsequently, a number of compartments were added including a square building, possibly a garderobe and a circular entrance passage.

At the end of the day the survey tapes were removed and final record photos were taken. This photo shows the curved building in Cutting H.

A complex sequence of buildings was revealed in Cutting H.

The drain lies below (and therefore predates) the burnt layers associated with the post-pad supported, open-sided farm shed.

The east face of Cutting H lies beneath charcoal layers and predates the buildings on the right.

The drain is badly damaged north of the tower. Here it can be seen passing beneath the building just revealed in the north section face.

Lorna Lacey took photographs of the finds from the excavation, here is a sample.

Animal bones washed and set out to dry.

Stone molding.

Spout from a medieval jug.

Medieval pottery typical of the ware found at Bective Abbey.

Decorated medieval pot sherd.

Floor tile.

Floor tile showing a griffin rampant. This motif seems to be new to Ireland.

Badly degraded silver coin from the curved tower in Cutting J (top). This is probably a silver penny of Henry III (1247–72) like this well preserved example from England (bottom).

A sherd of medieval French pottery.

A day is a long time in ‘archaeology’ particularly when you are on the final countdown. Catriona Devane has been working tirelessly on the registration and storage of this season’s finds and everything is up to date. This involves cleaning, form filling and data entering on computer. Good job Catriona!. The excitement mounted in the extension Cutting H with the exposure by Nóra Stout of a beautifully constructed stone drain containing a wealth of material. This had a stone paved floor and masonry walls. The fill was full of pottery, nails, a conch shell, bronze object and oyster shells. The flue was emptied by Laura Claffey and produced a basin of pottery, animal bones, fish bones and a possible piece of textile rope. The riddle was working overtime under the control of Rachel Barrett and Claire Breen. We had a wonderful visit from a number of youth groups from Simonstown and Trim including Coisceimeanna. Paula and Donal were their guides for the day and enthralled them with stories of Bective’s past. They were very interested and asked lots of  questions. They also helped Katie Lesley find her shoes! We had many visitors in the day including Con Manning and Ann Lynch from the National Monuments Service.

Catriona at work with yesterday's finds.

Single-handedly, Catriona manages to keep up with the avalanche of finds from the excavation.

All work and no play… Noel and Oisín show off their hurling skills during lunch break. Rumour has it that Oisín will play for St Pats in the new year.

A youth group from Trim are shown around the excavation by Paula and Nóra.

Spellbound! Paula explains the intricacies of archaeology.

Like the Pied Piper, Katie leads the Trim children dancing through the Abbey fields.

Emmet and Nóra admire the newly-discovered drain in Cutting H.

Archaeology can be cruel. Only yesterday Sadhbh and Noel were the talk of the excavation with their silver coin and curved chamber. Today they were yesterday's news.

Feature envy! Sadhbh looks on at the drain excavators.

Gor, what a scorcher! Rachel, Clare, Laura and Susan enjoying the shade on this fantastic day.

Soil sample processing is on-going at Bective Abbey and everyone is having a go at the on-site sieving. We are sieving the samples using the effective technique of floatation. This is where the sample is added to a bucket of water, agitated by hand to break up the soil to release any charred material, such as charcoal, cereal grain and other botanical surprises. This charred material is light in density and will float to the top, allowing us to pour it through a bank of sieves. Once dry, the material is identified and analysed. Lorraine Foley shows us how it’s done.

Charcoal identification is also being carried out from some of the samples. So far ash (Fraxinus excelsior) and oak (Quercus sp.) have been identified from the kiln samples.  Ash and oak are both species which are suitable for building, perhaps they were used in constructing the kiln itself. Whether fresh or dry, ash is considered very good firewood and its charcoal is highly regarded. Similarly, oak produces good long lasting fuel and is commonly found in features associated with industrial activities, such as kilning and metalworking.

Lorraine Foley at work in the environmental lab.

Cross section of ash.

Cross section of oak.

Things always heat up on the last day/ s of an excavation season and the Bective Abbey Project is no exception. The directors were dizzy after a day of call ups to examine new features and exciting finds. We have yet another flue associated with last years kiln; a chamber with a curving wall that produced a 13^th century Penny (well done, Noel!), an impressive section of wall with its footing and a thick charcoal and ash spread and a piece of carved column (Well done, George!). In the midst of all this excitement we had a visit from the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society and our old friend Tommy Coogan.

George Knight with is freshly-discovered piece of window molding.

Tommy Coogan (second from left) with his daughter Arlene (left), Rory and Stephanie. Tommy built the riddle seen in this picture. It has served us well at Knowth Site M and here on the Bective Abbey Project.

Members of the Meath Archaeological and Historical Society visited Bective to view the excavations. Here they are seen presenting Geraldine with copy of their journal, Riocht Na Midhe.

At the end of Day 17 we had a range of new walls and discoveries. The curved (bottom right) produced a silver penny possibly from the 13th century. A new series of walls and burnt material can be seen at the top right of the photo.

Excavation continued in Cutting H and its extension Cutting L. There was a steady buzz of work with most of the team concentrated in this area. Cutting M was opened to the west of the garden Cutting, to look for the garden wall. It was finished by the end of the day butalas, no wall. We had some extra help drafted, Peter Lacey  and the young Rory Blunts who helped with the riddle. Some of the students headed off to Newgrange for some podcasting.

Peter Lacey contemplates the meaning of Cutting H.

Oisín and Eoin, sons of Rory Blunt, hand over the discoveries from the riddle to Noel Carey.