Archaeologists Uncover 120,000 Artifacts During Medieval Abbey Excavations

A decade-long excavation project uncovered around 120,000 artifacts at a medieval monastery, a book has revealed.

Rushen Abbey was founded as a Cistercian monastery in A.D. 1134 on the Isle of Man—a self-governing island located between Great Britain and Ireland.

The abbey, which was dissolved in 1540, was once the most important religious institution on the Isle of Man. Its location in the middle of the Irish Sea, as well as its political connections, made it one of the most influential houses in Western Britain and Ireland at the time.

"It acted as a royal mausoleum in the manner of Westminster Abbey in England," archaeologist Peter Davey, who authored the book Rushen Abbey, Isle of Man: A hundred years of research and excavation, told Newsweek.

The book reports on the previously unpublished findings of an excavation led by Davey at the abbey between 1998 and 2008, which uncovered roughly 120,000 artifacts. It also provides an overview of all previous excavations at the site, the first of which were carried out in the 1890s.

The 10-year dig led by Davey uncovered a full range of artifacts from the high medieval period (around A.D 1000-1300)—including metal, glass and ceramic objects, as well as a number of coins.

It also yielded a smaller group of finds from an early medieval cemetery, as well as a collection of objects from the period after the abbey was dissolved, according to Davey.

"We knew the site had burials in the medieval period, but scientific dating techniques have now shown that Rushen Abbey has been a place of Christian burials for 1,000 years from A.D. 400 to 1400," Davey told Isle of Man Today.

The huge number of artifacts is extremely varied, although the archaeologist picked out several particularly notable finds from the collection.

"I would highlight a lead cross found in a context earlier than the earliest early medieval burial and so dating to the 5th century or earlier," Davey said. "This must be one of the earliest artifacts of Christianity in these islands."

"There is a fine range of continental ceramic imports including high quality jugs and plates and altar vessels," he said.

Other notable items include a number of "unusual and rare" medieval glass vessels, one of which was used for urology—a field of medicine designed to treat diseases of the urinary tract. Two Portuguese ceramic drinking cups that have only been found at one other location in the British Isles are also noteworthy.

The large quantity of medieval finds has revealed that although the abbey was the smallest precinct known in the Cistercian world, it was one of the richer examples, according to Davey. The Cistercians were a Catholic religious order of monks founded in A.D. 1098.

Among the post-medieval finds from the abbey are items that document the subsequent private ownership of the site, which was used as a girls's school and then served as a tourist attraction.

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