A last bit of recording and survey needed to be done in the larger cuttings before the formal hand-over of the context sheets and plans by the supervisors to the directors. Everyone else was involved in a frenzied tidy-up of the site to get it ready for its close up. Anthony Murphy, of Mythical Ireland fame and author of many books including Island of the setting Sun, very generously offered to take drone shots of the site. Fortunately, we had a narrow window of sun before the heavens opened and we all ran for cover. The tools were all cleaned and brought up to the shed for another season. Ever enthusiastic, Mary Sherlock, with Donal and Luke, was the last woman standing (that is still excavating) in a recently opened cutting. In the afternoon we had our traditional end of excavation do and distribution of the 2020 season T-shirts based on Peter McCullen’s fabulous design. John McCullen thanked the team and made a presentation to the co-directors of beautiful bespoke Irish pens made from a fallen tree at Beamore. The directors, in turn, thanked the supervisors, volunteers, specialists, extended McCullen family and FBD Trust for their support.
Day 20 saw the completion of a very successful second season of excavations on the McCullen farm at Beamore, County Meath. We had a large enthusiastic team made up of archaeology students and post-graduates from DCU, UCD and DKIT with a solid core of volunteers from the local community and beyond. Our excavation is being followed by a virtual community through this blog and will be featured in the Farmer’s Journal, Drogheda Independent, Irish Times and in a forthcoming film episode of the John Creedon programme. Our Twitter account, maintained by Billy Sines, went from 80 followers to 200 followers. This season we pushed back the dating of human settlement at Beabec with the discovery of a prehistoric ceremonial pit circle and stone tools beneath the medieval monastic farm. We more than doubled the number of finds this season with a broader range of material than last year. This included medieval wine jugs and storage vessels from Drogheda, Dublin, Cheshire, Bordeaux and Normandy in France, medieval floor tiles and window glass, plough pebbles, and metalwork. We are particularly fortunate at Beaubec to have waterlogged deposits in the latrine block and ditch which allows worked timber and seeds to survive. Our wooden finds this year include part of a medieval butter dash churn. Surviving oak timber planking which formed the roof of the latrine vault will help with the dating of the tower. Excavation this summer revealed further evidence for mixed farming by the French Cistercian monks in the thirteenth/fourteenth century. Their stock included sheep, goat, cattle, pig and poultry. They grew peas, beans, oats, wheat and rye. They also had fruit gardens and grew damsons, plums, sloes and elderberries. Their imports included grapes and figs probably from their home abbey of De Bello Becco in Normandy.Structurally, we uncovered more of the medieval stone-built farm buildings that housed a cereal drying kiln and bread oven. In the main residential block, an impressive communal latrine was found with thirteenth century detailing. Outside the main residential block, we found evidence for a water system that supplied the needs of this community for toilets, washing and food preparation. We are very grateful to FBD Trust for supporting this research excavation which we believe is making a significant contribution to the history and development of agriculture in Ireland.
Final note taking and surveying on the last day of the excavations (photos: Mick Mongey).
John explains the complex history as told in the section face of Cutting J (photo: Mick Mongey).
Before everyone was cleared from the site, and just before the rains came, Anthony Murphy captured the activity and the extent of the 2020 excavations. In other photos he recorded the minute detail within each cutting. Thanks Anthony! (photo: Anthony Murphy).
In a brief tour of the site (hurried becasue of the impending deluge) Anthony took special interest in the possible pit circle. As the discoverer of ‘drone henge’ he was excited to see its modest counterpart (photo: Mick Mongey).
Local pottery boffin Kieran Campbell made this sketch following a quick inspection of the unusual pot found in the ditch fill in cutting J. We thank him for sharing his expertise. Kieran writes: I have not found any exact parallels for this pot in any of the usual places. I have posted a photo of the principal sherds and a sketch of how the vessel might have looked on the facebook page of the Medieval Pottery Research Group but there has only been one comment so far, by Rosey Burton, English Heritage, to say that the knobs “are presumably to hold a plate or vessel above the rim”. From a brief viewing, the vessel resembles the top part of a jug with four triangular knobs on top of the rim and four delicate rod handles springing from below the rim and attached to the body. There appear to be at least two round-headed apertures in the body of the pot with external canopies similar to those seen on louvres. The fabric is very fine local Drogheda ware and the likely date is 14th-15th century. Evidently, heating was involved in the vessel’s function so it may have been a fuming pot or some kind of chafing dish. The knobs are very similar to those seen on early 16th-century Saintonge chafing dishes. It is possible that the vessel had a flat base, i.e. that it was cone-shaped. I used a Dublin-type jug from Wood Quay as the basis for the rough unmeasured sketch (above) and estimated where the apertures might have been placed. The shape will be revealed when it is pieced together.
The fuming pot in the early stages of its reconstruction.
Barney McAdam inspects the site in its final days. Barney grazes cattle in the field, when it is not being excavated that is (photo: Craig Downie).
Visitors on the last day included Lizanne Allen and Georgina Callow, shown here with Penny. Penny has been housed, to a very high standard, in their properties over the last two seasons.
Comhall was able to work on the site today despite the back injury he received in Gaelic football training. Comhall has been an excavation stalwart since 2018.
The heavens opened just before lunch and everyone took shelter where they could find it (photo: Muireann O’Higgins).
Site mascot Sophie was reluctant to leave the excavation. She takes a last look back at the field that she has guarded (with deputy mascot Sandy, and finds room mascot Wez) for the four weeks of the excavations. Sophie is looking forward to a third and final season in 2021.
Because of the uncertain weather, the finishing up festivities had to be moved inside. Here John McCullen thanks the excavation team for their hard work and entertains them with a reading from his publication Letters from Aunt MaryLetters of Aunt Mary: Archived Correspondence 1868-1970.
John presents co-director Geraldine with a beautiful pen hand made by Richard and Catherine Daly of Irish Pens from a 300 year old beach tree that fell on the McCullen’s farm in 2017.
Mementos from the 2020 excavations at Beaubec, Co. Meath.
Beaubec Excavations 