Day 8 – Those bones, those bones, those dry bones…

The spotlight shifted to the far end of the site today to the cuttings near the service tower. Heroic removal of a difficult stony layer has uncovered a dark loamy layer rich in shells, large burnt bones and medieval pottery. This is medieval waste. Kieran Campbell has identified the pottery as local Drogheda ware dating from the thirteenth century. Leslie Thornton, who has a particular interest in animal remains, uncovered a cache of animal jaws that will be sent as part of the Beaubec assemblage to Dr Fiona Beglane in Sligo IT for identification. Mary Sherlock and her team that includes Oliver, Bronagh and Eamon have unearthed the strap-handles of wine jugs and large burnt animal joints coming from the fill of a drain. We were delighted to welcome Seamus Bellew of the County Louth Archaeological and Historical Society to the site and the Sweetman family from Annesbrook who are old friends of the directors . We cannot wait for tomorrow to see what new evidence will emerge from the site.

Before and after photos of todays excavation. The sods were stripped in Cutting V8 and Mick can be seen in this photo still working at the end of the day, almost down to Medieval layers. Áine helped him remove the sod and difficult stone layers. The wall is emerging in V6.

Bronagh, Eamonn and Oliver (left to right) display the finds discovered in the course of the day (photo by Mary Sherlock who keeps a close eye on all activities in cutting V11).

Mary Sherlock with her freshly discovered medieval strap handle.

Kieran Campbell and Seamus Bellew visited the site in the afternoon. We are grateful to Kieran for identifying some of the more unusual pottery types.

Sadhbh and Kate (right) with co-director Matthew. Sadhbh worked at Beaubec in 2019 and Kate has always been a great supporter of our excavations.