Author Archives: cstrapps

By Carly Strapps

Final week… burials!

[see previous posts by Carly on her time on the Irish Archaeological Fieldschool here and here]

After two weeks of curious glances and visits to see what was taking place with the burials, finally it was my turn to have a play!

The burials at the Black Friary fall into 3 broad groups. These are the burials of medieval date, post medieval-date, and the infants and children who are thought to be buried there because they were not baptized. The medieval burials have been found within the church, either beneath the floor or in tombs set into or against the walls. The burials of post-medieval date are suspected to be people who continued to be buried in the general area of the friary post its use.

My task, along with two other students, was to locate the rest of a burial in Cutting 10 after a penetrating foot was discovered while excavating. Cutting 10 was first opened in 2013 exposing the south wall of the church. It is suspected that it also contains the northern part of the cemetery.

First we were to look for the grave cut. The soil texture generally will become looser and can sometimes change in colour in a grave cut. Often rocks will only be around the cut, rather than in it. The first thing we discovered was a skull, a very exciting moment! It was a small skull and appeared to be that of a young child. This did not seem to match up with the adult foot that was first found at all.

Slowly over the next two days we uncovered the humerus bones, the pelvis and both femurs. The femurs were both broken/cut off and we were unable to find the remaining lower half of the skeleton. This confirmed that the original foot was definitely unrelated to the new juvenile burial that we had now found, burial 86 (approximately 3-4 years old).

Over the rest of the week we worked to expose the rest of the skeleton with minimal structure disturbance, in order to get it ready for photos and measurements. The tools that we used for this included a leaf trowel, small paintbrush, clay molder and dental picks (allowing for the removal of soil in very tight or small locations). Working with such fragile bones in a tight spot was awkward at times, but it was so fascinating and consuming that I didn’t even notice the cuts and grazes to my body until the end of each day.

Last day on site

Pouring rain!! I had been very lucky to mostly avoid heavy rain until today. We had to place a marquee over our burial and sponge out the excess moisture to the area. AND my gumboots and wet weather gear really got to prove their worth. But we powered on through the day taking measurements, levels and learning how to photograph the burial before it was time to dismantle our juvenile skeleton and place each bone into its corresponding labeled bag for further analysis.

Goodbye to burial 86! And goodbye to the Blackfriary. Goodbye to all the wonderful people I met — students, supervisors and local residents alike. I learnt so much and yet feel like I have only scratched the surface. I am already planning my return for next year, and strongly encourage anyone else in the field, experienced or not, to get involved!

For further information on the Irish Archaeological Field School and Blackfriary Community Archaeology Project: http://iafs.ie/

 

By Carly Strapps

An Introduction to Field Archaeology

While on the Black Friary site with the IAFS in Trim, Ireland, I undertook a two week course entitled ‘An Introduction to Field Archaeology.’ This course is designed for students, like me, with no previous experience in archaeological field work. The course covers the basics in excavation techniques and site recordings while working on an ongoing excavation project and learning about the history of the Black Friary.

On the first day at the site we learnt that the Black Friary was founded in 1263 by the then Lord of Trim Geoffrey de Geneville. De Geneville spent his final days at the Friary and was buried there in 1314. The Friary was an important part of the town of Trim. Its lands were extensive and it held important governmental and ecclesiastical meetings between the 13th and 15th centuries. By 1540, however, it had fallen into disrepair. By the 18th century a lot of the building stone was sold.

Due to a steady stream of visitors frequenting the site each day, it was good to know and share the history of the site as well as explain what we are doing and why. The Black Friary site has a strong focus on community involvement, and it was a great feeling to be able to teach the locals something new about the history of the town that they lived in.

While undertaking my training I spent the majority of the time working in Cutting 6. Cutting 6 was first opened in 2012 to uncover the north east corner of the cloister. Earlier this year it was reopened and extended, and now also includes part of the east range of buildings and the chapter house of the friary. At 20m X 20m, Cutting 6 is the largest cutting on site to date.

While working in Cutting 6 my fellow students and I came up with a number of interesting archaeological finds. Some of these included a musket ball, medieval floor tiles, medieval pottery pieces, and medieval stained glass. Stained glass in particular requires a lot of care when excavated as it’s at risk of drying out and de-laminating. During excavation it is kept in as much of the surrounding soil as possible to keep it damp.

A large portion of my time in Cutting 6 was spent doing an archaeological plan – drawing a particular architectual feature from a bird’s-eye view. In order to do this two fellow students and I had a measuring tape set up from east to west, and a hand tape measure held from north to south. A plum bob was then used to record each point and it was then drawn onto the plan accordingly. The feature we were working on included three stairs located within the east range of buildings. One definate post hole could be seen as well as one other possible post hole. The presence of these post holes indicated that there was a second floor accessed by the three steps still standing, and then it would have lead on to wooden stairs. It is believed that this could have lead to where the dormitory was located, where the friars would have been meeting and living.

I have to admit, planning was much harder than I first thought it would be! Depending on who was holding the tape and how windy it was, the results could change dramatically and often had to be done multiple times in order to get an accurate result. It was a time consuming, but most rewarding job once finally completed.

For more information on the Irish Archaeological Field School visit the website: http://iafs.ie/