Tomb - effigial

The National Monuments Service's description

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A mid-14th century double effigy of lay male and female (L 1.95m; Wth 0.98m; T 0.28m) made from fossiliferous limestone. The effigy was found during the 2015 archaeological excavations (12E0314) at the S end of the N transept reused to cover the top of a 16th-17th century stone-lined burial (Gittos and Gittos 2019; Ó Drisceoil 2019; 2020, 171). Carved in low relief, it depicts two life sized figures, a male on the right and a female on the left. The figures are in civilian dress. They lie recumbent with hands in prayer. The female wears a surcoat, tunic, cloak and shoulder length veil. Her legs are crossed. The male wears a surcoat and cape with a rolled down hood. The sleeves of both figures have long 'tippit' extensions. Incised lines were used to create much of the detail on both figures. No inscription survived. The top and faces are worn smooth, probably from foot-traffic as a result of it being set into the floor of the church. A break at the top of the effigy had resulted from the degradation of the supporting planks below it which has been placed over the top of the underlying stone-lined burial. Following its conservation the effigy was replaced in 2016 into the floor of the Medieval Mile Museum, above its original find location.

See attached photograph:
KK019-026284-_01 by Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 21 November 2022

References

Gittos, B and Gittos, M. 2019 A newly discovered double effigy at St. Mary's Church, Kilkenny. Unpublished report for Kilkenny Archaeology.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2019 Excavations at St. Mary's Church and Church Lane, Kilkenny 12E0314. Unpublished final report for Kilkenny Archaeology.

Ó Drisceoil, C. 2020 ‘Yet notin is more certaine than death, nor uncertaine, than the houre theirof': excavations in the chantry chapels of St. Mary's church, Kilkenny’, in C. Corlett and M. Potterton (eds.), The Town in Medieval Ireland in the light of recent archaeological excavations, 161-84. Bray. Wordwell.