Priceless medieval artefacts discovered in Thomastown dig

In the clay, small discoveries can be a tangible link with the people of the past. Colm has unearthed the remains of a number of clay pipes. These would have been used before cigarettes, right up to the late 19th Century.
“They would have touched the lips of the owner and would have been used until they became clogged up with ash, they’re an intimate item,” Colm said.

“The difference between history and archaeology is that history is the story of queens and kings, but archaeology is the story of the people. That’s what we see with these artefacts, the everyday, the mundane, and it’s nice to see,” Colm said.

Among the items uncovered is quite an amount of animal bones. These have signs of butchery and would have been from domestic cooking. The bones are from pigs, cattle and some sheep and will be examined by a specialist. It could be another sign of wealthy merchants in the town as in medieval Ireland meat was not a daily food for the average person.

Along Logan and Low Street the foundations of quite a few merchants’ houses have been seen.
The streetscape now is wider than it would have been in medieval times, when Low Street would have been no wider than what we would now call a lane. The line of current buildings have moved back but many seem to be built on the walls of former buildings and in much of the same footprint.

Thomastown is significant in archaeological terms for Kilkenny, Colm said. Medieval documents refer

Medieval documents refer to taxes raised in the city to pay for the walls in Thomastown
to taxes raised in the city to pay for the construction of walls in Thomastown. It was a significant outpost of the city and featured highly in the life of Kilkenny as a county.

Discoveries have been photographed and the National Monuments Service informed, and items uncovered have been sent on to the National Museum  of Ireland for preservation.
Work commenced last September on Logan Street, Maudlin Street and Pipe Street, and continued southwards towards Low Street, between September and November. Work on Low Street has temporarily been paused, under Level 5 regulations, but when construction starts up again we can only imagine what fragments of the past will be uncovered.