COUNTY MEATH, IRELAND—The Irish Mirror reports that archaeologists working outside the city of Drogheda have uncovered a medieval site associated with the French Cistercian foundation of De Bello Becco, or Beaubec. The team discovered the foundations of a structure that appears to feature a diagonal, French-style buttress, as well as a kiln, and rare French ceramics dating to the thirteenth century, when the Norman monks are known to have been granted lands in the area. Researchers hope to learn more about the type of agricultural produce the monastery would have exported and imported, and about the involvement of the Cistercians in the region's commercial development through the latter part of the Middle Ages. To read more about the archaeology of medieval Ireland, go to "The Vikings in Ireland."
