What is recorded here

Dundalk’s medieval kitchen discarded its shells into a narrow pit beneath Seatown, where mussel and cockle fragments still crowd the darkness. Men digging office foundations in 2003 broke through that forgotten depth, exposing two metres of buried meal remnants and a little local pottery. The building above will host thought and transaction, but the ground below remembers hunger, tide and the ordinary disposal of life.

Discovered during monitoring at 76 Seatown, Dundalk (Excavation Licence No. 03E0477), during the excavation of foundation trenches for an extension to an office building. Medieval deposits were uncovered throughout the site. Part of a medieval pit (L 2.2m; max. exposed Wth 1m; D 0.7m) was excavated. 'The fill contained frequent shell flecks (mussel, cockle), occasional whole oyster and periwinkle, ten animal bones and five small sherds of medieval pottery of local manufacture of c. 13th-14th-century date'. (Campbell 2006, 339) Reference: Campbell, K. 2006 Seatown, Dundalk Medieval Urban. In I. Bennett (ed.), Excavations 2003: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, 339 (No. 1269). Bray. Wordwell. Compiled by: Claire Breen Date of upload: 24 November 2011

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