THIRTY-FIVE well-preserved skeletons, dating back 700 years, have been uncovered during excavation work in Mullingar.
The skeletons, believed to be those of medieval friars, were exposed as construction workers prepared the foundations for a shopping complex and an apart-hotel in one of the oldest quarters of the Westmeath town.
The find was made in an area known as Buckky's car-park, just off Austin Friar Street.
Besides the skeletons, a religious relic, believed to have originated at the shrine of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, has also been found. So also have some fragments of 13th- and 14th-century glazed French pottery, some iron objects and what appears to be the remains of a bronze clasp.
An archaeological team has also uncovered the remains of medieval buildings likely to be monastic and a medieval rubbish dump.
The archaeologist leading the excavation, Mr Michael Gibbons, said the skeletons were well preserved because of the free-draining gravel in which they were buried, As the street name revealed, there was an Augustinian friary at the location and the monks would have been buried between 1227 and 1540, when the monastic settlement was dissolved during the Reformation.
Indications are that many of the skeletons are those of young men. Some were teenagers, as can be seen from the teeth and the unfused hip-bones. One of the skeletons had broken ribs which had healed while another had an abscess on his jaw when he died. One appears to have died from tuberculosis.
At least two of the skeletons wore scallop shells which, according to Mr Gibbons, indicated they were high-profile people and had probably travelled abroad.
The remains are to be lifted this week, when all the bones will be carefully tagged and placed in bags before being taken away for analysis. It is expected that a forensic pathologist will determine whether the monks concerned would have been Norman. On completion of the examination, most of the skeletons will be reburied but, according to Mr Gibbons, some may be kept.
Human bones have been found in the area in the past, according to locals. This latest burial ground was for many years located under a terrace of houses which has been demolished to allow for development under the Mullingar urban renewal programme.