Excavation - miscellaneous

The National Monuments Service's description

Pit containing early medieval bone and antler working waste uncovered in archaeological test-excavations (06E0306) by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil in a former walled garden known as the 'Deanery Orchard', now a park and carpark, 40m SE of St Canice's Cathedral (KK019-026029-) (Gittins 2004, 272-3; Ó Drisceoil 2006, unpublished; 2009, 273-5). The Deanery Orchard is depicted as a large open area on John Rocque’s 1758 map of Kilkenny, which in the 19th century was divided into three enclosures by stone walls. Before it was the orchard for the Deanery (KK019-026033-) on the opposite (W) side of Coach Road (built 1690), it formed part of the plot of the manse house (KK019-026106-) for the Precentor of the cathedral chapter in the Cathedral Close. In the early medieval period it occupied the S side of the precinct of the ecclesiastical settlement of Cill Chainnigh. The round tower (KK019-026175-) is the only remaining upstanding building from this period of the site's history but a souterrain (KK019-026227-) and a section of the bank and fosse of the ecclesiastical enclosure (KK019-026231-) have been found on the Deanery Orchard site (Ó Drisceoil 2018, 118). Human burials that underlay the round tower (KK019-026175-) have been radiocarbon dated to the 10th, and 11th/mid-12th centuries and burials (KK019-026234-) excavated (09E0457) to the E of the 13th-century chancel of the cathedral on Church Lane were dated by radiocarbon to the mid-7th – mid-10th century AD (Ó Drisceoil 2018, 118). The excavated pit was oval in plan (dims. 1.6m E-W x 0.9m N-S; D 0.7m) and cut into the natural gravel subsoil and the levelled inner bank of the ecclesiastical enclosure (KK019-026231-) within the Deanery Orchard site (Gittins 2004, 272-3; Ó Drisceoil 2006, unpublished; 2009, 273-5). The pit contained bone off-cuts and cut antler tines and a complete set of antlers that was radiocarbon dated to AD 890-1020. It is one of many finds of bone and antler waste from around the Cathedral Close, representing an extensive bone and antler working industry within the early medieval ecclesiastical settlement between the 10th-12th century (Ó Drisceoil 2013, 86). The feature was preserved in situ.

See attached photograph.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 5 November 2020

References

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2013 Excavation and Archaeological Building Survey at the Robing Room, Heritage Council Headquarters (former Bishop’s Palace),
Church Lane, Kilkenny 2011 & 2012 (11E157 & 11E157 ext.): final report. Kilkenny Archaeology (https://www.academia.edu/9523935/Archaeological_Excavations_at_the_Bishops_Palace_Robing_Room_Saint_Canices_Cathedral_Close_Kilkenny; accessed 5 November 2020).

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2018 From Gaelic church settlements to Anglo-Norman towns: problems and possibilities. In H.B. Clarke and Sarah Gearty (ed.), More maps and texts: sources and the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, 115-34. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2009 The Deanery Orchard, St Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2006: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, No. 1062, 273-5. Bray. Wordwell.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2006 Archaeological Assessment: Proposed Carpark Development at The Deanery Orchard, St. Canice’s Cathedral, Kilkenny City 06E0306, (Kilkenny Archaeology, unpublished report).

Gittens, M. 2004 Saint Canice’s Orchard, Coach Road/Church Lane. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, no. 1006, 272-3. Bray. Wordwell.