Can Humpty Dumpty Be Put Back Together?Author(s): Cóilín Ó Drisceoil, John Bradley, Richard Jennings, Leah McCullough and JohnHealySource: Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 23, No. 2 (Summer, 2009), pp. 26-31Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20617991 .

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Can Humpty

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? \ Fig. 1?The early twelfth-century round * tower at St Canice's Cathedral is Kilkenny's

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ptybe

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C?il?n ? Drisceoil, John

Bradley, Richard

Jennings, Leah

McCullough and John

Healy on the Kilkenny

Archaeological Project

Introduction

Kilkenny is well known throughout Ireland for its archaeological heritage, and today its

castle, cathedral, abbeys, churches,

townhouses, streets and slips form the only

example of an Irish medieval city to remain

largely intact (Fig. 1). Modern development in the historic core has thus far left the main streets relatively unscathed, though

unfortunately the same cannot be said of

elsewhere in the city (Figs 2 and 3). Below

ground level the impact of the now dimly remembered 'Celtic Tiger' has also been felt:

about half the city's buried archaeology has been removed over the past fifteen years.

Not surprisingly, this process has generated a vast amount of new information on

Kilkenny's past, but most of what has been

found remains something of a mystery even

to those actively working in the field. Now that economic matters are at the centre of

public discourse, perhaps we need to ask

what exactly there is to show for the estimated 15 million that has been spent on 'preserving by record' the city's

archaeology over recent years. Kilkenny's

poor rate of archaeological publication and

the continued absence of a designated

county museum make this a question not

easily answered.

In an effort to deal with the issue, the

Kilkenny Archaeological Project was instituted between Kilkenny Archaeology (archaeological consultants), the National

University of Ireland Maynooth (John

Bradley) and Kilkenny Borough Council. March 2008 saw the project receive Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research

(INSTAR) programme funding for its first

phase of work; in the following eight months the entire archaeological record for

the city was collated and assessed, and a

strategy was produced and costed for its

Fig. 2?Aerial photograph of Kilkenny in 1967, with St Canice's Cathedral in the foreground and Kilkenny Castle at the top (CUCAP 1967). In the classic Continental manner, the cathedral

and the castle were linked by one long street, which later became the High Street and

Parliament Street. Most subsequent development occurred in the characteristically long, medieval burgage plots that can be seen behind the houses.

Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009 27

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Fig. 3?Aerial photograph of Kilkenny in

2005, with Kilkenny Castle at the bottom

and St Canice's Cathedral at the top

(courtesy of Kilkenny Local Authorities). The

impact of modern development on the

burgage plots of the city is stark, and today

only one plot?at Rothe House?survives

intact.

public dissemination. This article provides a

brief overview of the project's results to date.

The Kilkenny Urban Archaeology Database The first major undertaking was the collation onto a specifically designed database?the Kilkenny Urban Archaeology Database?of each archaeological recording

episode that occurred in the city between the seventeenth century and 2006. To date 429 individual entries have been included, 212 of which relate to archaeological

investigations that took place between 1968 and 2006. The remainder are historically recorded find-spots, listed buildings and Urban Archaeological Survey data.

Information on the corpus of c. 37,000

artefacts, 1,300 human skeletons and the

excavated palaeobotanical material is also

included. The database now provides easy

access to original documentary material such

as site reports, photographs, journal

publications and a host of relevant records,

all of which have been scanned into the

database as PDF files. The location of each database entry has also been plotted in a

Geographical Information System (GIS) and there now exists comprehensive mapping of the

city's archaeology, to the level of each cutting that has been opened (Fig. 4).

Assessing the archaeology of the city Thirty-eight years of archaeological excavation

in Kilkenny have produced a large amount of

archaeological evidence, and our understanding

of all periods of the city's history has been

greatly enhanced by these discoveries. The

following gives a flavour of some of the key discoveries that have been made.

Prehistoric Prehistoric activity has been recorded on five

occasions in the city, indicating intermittent

settlement in the area in the Mesolithic and

Fig. 4?An

example of the

GIS mapping produced for the

Kilkenny Urban

Archaeology Database.

Mapping ? 2008 Kilkenny County Council & Ordnance Survey of Ireland

28 Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009

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KILKENNY ARCHAEOLOGY

Number of archaeological investigations in

Kilkenny City 1968-2006

<? ^ & ?? f ?? f S y f f # # & f f # # # f Waterford Galway Drogheda Limerick Kilkenny Cork

Above left: Graph depicting the annual rate

of archaeological investigations in Kilkenny

city.

Above right: Bar chart showing the total

number of archaeological licences issued for

selected towns and cities in Ireland

between 1968 and 2006. Whilst the

remarkably high rate of licences for

Kilkenny is undoubtedly a reflection of the

proactive approach to archaeology that has

historically been taken for Kilkenny by the

regulatory authorities, it may also echo to a

certain extent the many smaller-scale

developments that have taken place within

the city, each of which required the issuing of a licence.

Bronze Age. Microliths, polished stone axes

and an early Bronze Age bowl cremation have been recorded, but the most

spectacular discovery was undoubtedly the

late Bronze Age fish-trap excavated by Ian

Doyle underneath St John's Bridge (Archaeology Ireland 17 (1)).

Early Christian (c. AD 400-1169) The archaeology of Kilkenny's Early Christian past has been largely unknown,

despite Cill Chainnigh having been a major monastic centre from at least the eighth century. Seven recent investigations,

however, have now brought to light new

evidence, including what appears to have

been an inner vallum of the ecclesiastical

precinct of Cill Chainnigh, excavated

separately by Andrew Gittens and C?il?n ? Drisceoil in the 'Deanery Orchard' beside St Canice's Cathedral. The site also produced

evidence for antler-working and a twelfth

century corn-drying kiln.

Medieval (1169-c. 1550) There have been 88 important investigations of medieval material carried out in Kilkenny since 1968. New evidence relating to the

domestic realm within the medieval city, its ecclesiastical sites, industries, trades and

crafts, its town wall and its castle has all been

produced, along with some 25,000 artefacts.

Archaeological excavation, monitoring

and architectural recording were undertaken

by Ben Murtagh and Phelim Manning at

Kilkenny Castle between 1990 and 1999 (Fig. 5). What appears to have been the bank of a

ringwork castle was constructed over the

earlier, possibly pre-Anglo-Norman horizon.

The earthwork castle was itself replaced by a

stone castle, built by William Marshal the

elder, in the early thirteenth century.

Excavations in and around the south tower

(the Parade Tower) uncovered a large section

of the castle fosse, as well as a previously

undocumented sally-port and part of the

demolished south wing. Kilkenny's medieval bridges have received

some attention as a consequence of the works

for the 2000-2005 Kilkenny Flood Relief

Scheme, the archaeology for which was

carried out by Margaret Gowen and Co. Ltd and the Archaeological Diving Company.

Much of the sixteenth-century Green's Bridge was recorded and excavated by Paul Stevens,

and at John's Bridge the remains of a late

medieval bridge were found directly beneath the present structure. A collection of fine

medieval grave-slabs were built into the

abutments of this bridge and others were

recovered nearby.

Perhaps where the most advances have

been made, however, is in the archaeology of

the city's 'backlands'?the burgage plots,

gardens and yards behind the street frontages.

Workshops, stores, animal pens, industrial

areas, gardens and property divisions have all

Fig. 5?Kilkenny Castle was the scene of an

important series of archaeological

investigations by Ben Murtagh and Phelim

Manning between 1990 and 1999 (photo: C. ? Drisceoil, Kilkenny Archaeology).

Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009

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Fig. 6?Over half of

the medieval town

of Kilkenny was

constructed on

ground that was

reclaimed in the

thirteenth century from the

floodplains of the rivers Nore and

Breagagh. This

map was produced

by plotting the occurrences of

alluvial material in

archaeological and

geotechnical

investigations

throughout the

city and relating them to its

contours.

Mapping O 2008 Kilkenny County Council & Ordnance Survey of

been recorded; this is the archaeology of

everyday life so poorly represented in the

documentary records.

In the area of reclamation archaeology there has also been much progress, and the

massive campaign undertaken in the

thirteenth century to reclaim the floodplains of the rivers Nore and Breagagh has been well documented (Fig. 6). At Brennan's yard,

Irishtown, Ian Doyle recorded the construction of late twelfth/thirteenth

century timber revetting fences, which were

finally replaced by a riverside masonry wall.

Roughly three-quarters of the 37,000 artefacts that have been excavated in the city are of medieval date, with pottery making up

the bulk of the corpus. Claire McCutcheon has studied much of this material and her work has demonstrated that the city had a

thriving local pottery industry: locally produced ceramics form the vast bulk (c.

85%) of excavated assemblages, with

imports from Saintonge, France, and western

Britain making up the majority of the remainder. In 2006 an important fourteenth

century pottery production centre was

excavated by Emma Devine and C?il?n ? Drisceoil (Fig. 7); this included the potter's kiln, workshop, pot-drying kiln and the pits that were dug to provide clay/temper for the vessels.

Post-medieval (c. 1550-c. 1900)

It is difficult at this stage to define exactly how many archaeological investigations have produced post-medieval archaeology of

significance, as many of the excavation

reports deal only superficially with this material. Nevertheless, there is definite

evidence for substantive post-medieval

archaeological activity on 85 individual sites. There has been a particular focus on the

archaeology and architecture of the city's remarkable stock of Renaissance (c.

1560-1650) townhouses. Substantial studies have been carried out at ten of these

structures, most notably those by Ed

O'Donovan at the Langton House (1603) and Shee House (1580), and Ben Murtagh, Neil O'Flanagan and Eoin Halpin's

investigations at Rothe House, Parliament

Street (1594). Between 2005 and 2007 C?il?n ?

Drisceoil excavated in Rothe House burgage plot, in advance of a garden-recreation

project. This was the first time the garden archaeology of an Irish early modern

townhouse had been investigated in detail,

and the project led to the discovery of

important new evidence about how these

gardens looked and functioned. During the excavation it was possible to make out the

arrangement of the planting beds, paths,

walls and other features that formed the

garden, and these have been replicated in

the newly restored scheme.

The archaeology of Kilkenny's post

medieval industry has benefited greatly from the work carried out by Paul Stevens and Ian

Doyle on the city's mills during the Kilkenny Flood Relief Scheme. At Mill Island the excavation of the watermill by Paul Stevens

represents one of the most comprehensive

urban industrial archaeology projects ever

undertaken in Ireland.

A section of Kilkenny's population during the Famine has been extensively researched and documented through the excavations by Brenda O'Meara of the

cemetery adjacent to Kilkenny Union

Workhouse, where 846 individuals were

exhumed in total.

Towards publication In drawing up a publication strategy for the

Kilkenny Archaeological Project, the first item that needed to be clarified was exactly how many of the 212 investigations undertaken between 1968 and 2006 actually produced results that warranted publication.

Each archaeological investigation was

therefore graded according to criteria laid

down by the Heritage Council (Doyle et al.

2001, section 3.2), with category 1 sites

being of considerable significance and

category 5 of none. Using these standards,

over half of the archaeological investigations?115 in total?can be

considered worthy of publication. To date,

however, only ten have been fully published, with another six in progress. This is clearly an unsustainable position and a failure to

30 Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009

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Fig. 7?Archaeologists Emma Devine and Philip Kenny obtaining archaeomagnetic dating

samples from the fired-clay lining of the pottery kiln at the MacDonagh Junction shopping centre (photos: C. ? Drisceoil, Kilkenny Archaeology).

fulfil one of archaeology's core functions, the

generation of public knowledge of our past.

Another major problem is the highly fragmented nature of the Kilkenny material,

a consequence of the developer-led,

disconnected and piecemeal nature of

modern archaeology. Many different

excavation techniques and levels of recovery

have also been used over the years, and

virtually all the work has been carried out

without a research agenda. The quality and

composition of the site reports vary greatly, as does the archive material that has been

produced.

The state of archaeology in Kilkenny is not entirely gloomy, however, and it should be stressed that a large body of high-quality work has been carried out in the city over

the years. For instance, a remarkably high

proportion (88%) of the c. 37,000 artefacts recovered have been the subject of specialist analysis, and quite a number of

palaeobotanical and other such reports have

also been produced. Indeed, almost three

quarters of sites could be considered to be at

the 'final report' stage, where with some

basic editing and redrafting the

investigations could be of publishable standard.

In examining the many different

publication models available, both Irish and

international, it quickly became clear that

urban archaeologists throughout the world

have grappled with the issues outlined above. In recent years a consensus would

appear to have emerged, one that favours

publications that are structured as 'layered' accounts. This means that the archives and

the specialist, technical and detailed structural reports are published and readily

accessible digitally (on CD-ROM and/or the

internet), whilst a synthesis and analysis of

the material is provided in the traditional

print format. For Kilkenny it is envisaged that a similar model will be employed.

Conclusion In general, the archaeological study of

medieval towns can be said to begin at data

gathering, move through to interpretation and finish at explanation. With the

completion of the 2008 phase of the

Kilkenny Archaeological Project, the first

stage of this process can be considered

accomplished and the enormous wealth and

range of the city's archaeological record

clearly demonstrated. A unique opportunity now exists to use this material to explore

Kilkenny's past in detail, producing the first

major archaeological study for an Irish

inland town. In late 2008 an application was

lodged with the INSTAR programme to bring the Kilkenny Archaeological Project to

completion over the coming two years. It is

estimated that this will cost around

^50,000, which amounts to about 1.6% of the money that has been spent on funding the various investigations that have taken

place in the city. The website www.kkap.ie contains more

information relating to the project, as well as

a PDF of the 2008 final report.

Acknowledgements The Kilkenny Archaeological Project is funded by the Heritage Council's Irish National Strategic Archaeological Research

Programme 2008 (ref. 16677). Mapping and aerial photography were provided to the

project by Kilkenny Local Authorities. In

particular, KKAP wishes to place on record its

sincere gratitude to the 74 individual

archaeologists and fifteen consultancies who

consented to allow the results of their

investigations to be included in the project. Dr Elizabeth Fitzpatrick and Paul Walsh are

sincerely thanked for their advice at the

beginning of the project. The assistance of

Isabel Bennett in providing unpublished material from the Excavations bulletins is

gratefully acknowledged, and finally we wish

to thank Matt Seaver for his comments on a

draft of this paper.

60

50

40

30

20

10

0

Quantity of published sites

Sites not published

Sites published

12 3 4 5

Site significance category

Quantity of sites at

final publication

stage per

significance

category. Sites in

categories 1-3 (n =

115) are considered

to warrant full

publication.

Reference

Doyle, I.W., Jennings, D. and McDermott, J.,

with Challinor, D. and Lambrick, G.

2001 Unpublished excavations in the

Republic of Ireland 1930-1997. Dublin. Oxford Archaeology/Heritage Council.

Archaeology Ireland Summer 2009 31

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