Graveslab

The National Monuments Service's description

At St Mary's parish church (KK019-026115-) in Kilkenny. A 13th/14th-century coffin-shaped graveslab uncovered next to double effigy (KK019-026281-) in the 2015 excavations (12E0314) at St. Mary’s Church (Ó Drisceoil 2019; 2020, 171). Located at the S end of the N transept, sealed by a late 18th-century floor level and overlying timber planks that covered an oval stone-lined grave.
A coffin-shaped slab (L 1.74m; Wth 0.55m at the widest (W) end, tapering to 0.4m at the narrow (E) end; T 0.22m) of fossiliferous limestone, decorated with an incised four-armed cross with fleur-de-lis terminals above an orb and cross shaft that terminates in an orb and fleur-de-lis. There is no trace of an original inscription, which has been replaced by a secondary Latin inscription in raised relief blackletter:
HIC JACET JACOB CLEERE QUONDA BURGENSIS VILLE KILKENNIE QI OBIT XX DIE MEN AUGUSTI A.D. 1597
It translates as, Here lies James Cleere once burgess of the city of Kilkenny who died 20th day [of the] month of August Ao D 1597
The edges of the slab and parts of the inscribed cross are worn smooth, probably from foot traffic but the later inscription remains quite crisp, with little sign of wear and so was probably not exposed at floor level for a protracted period. The rough vertical dressing of the long sides of the slab would seem to indicate it was originally designed to abut a wall. The original location is unknown. The graveslab has been reset in the new floor directly above its original find spot.

Compiled by: Cóilín Ó Drisceoil

Date of upload: 4 January 2023

References

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 Unpublished final report for Kilkenny Archaeology.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.