‘No better feeling than knowing you are dealing with your own history’

Maria Woodlock is the monitoring supervisor at Irish Archaeological Consultancy Ltd, and she is from Thurles. She worked on the archaeological assessment in Liberty Square for 16 months.

 While Ms Woodlock has worked on many other digs, this particular project was unique because hometown projects are unusual in archaeology. 

"I loved every minute of it. Not only dealing with the archaeology but having travelled for the last decade, I really felt at home again. I enjoyed explaining to people what I do and why I do it and having the chats with the locals out for their daily strolls,” said Maria.

The Dig

On the project, Maria and the crew found a few items of interest. East-West through the Square, they found a culvert (a tunnel for water under a road or railway) with an arched roof and cut limestone walls. She also found a stone-lined well where the culvert ended and what may be the remnants of three old water features from Liberty Square. 

"I found an iron object, which had evidence of a lion's head and a heavily corroded crest on it. This object has been sent to the lab to be treated and conserved," said Maria who added that these may not seem like much, but it was exciting for her to find. 

She also said passersby were interested in their work.  

"What is beneath the tarmacadam and the concrete in Liberty Square is a gateway to our past,"  she says.

 A Love of History

Maria knew from  early on she wanted to be an archaeologist.

 “In first-year history, it is the first thing you learn about in history class, and I remember thinking that’s it, that is what I want to do!  I always thought myself lucky because so many young people struggle with figuring out the career path they want to follow, but I found mine on day one in secondary school,” Maria said. 

She trained in Heritage Studies at Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, graduating in 2006.

Her first job was Two Mile Borris for the M7/M8 Cashel to Cullahill motorway.

 This dig was also significant to Maria for a couple of reasons. 

"This is the village my dad and his family were reared in, so it felt very special to me, 

“I had my first big find on that site. It was a penannular broach made from bronze with four cavities that would have held either glass or possibly diamond decoration; it was dated to 600AD.

 The dig provided key training for Maria. 

 “During this time, you are trained to identify archaeological features and sites; you are shown how to record them and  this includes a photographic record, a scaled drawing of both the half section of the feature and a scaled plan of the feature and site that it is part of,

“A sample of the soil is taken in fills within the feature and  if there is something that requires further analysis in the lab, such as charcoal for carbon dating or seeds that may tell the story of what was being cultivated or consumed by the people of the time, that is done,”Maria said.

She  later worked in wetland archaeology in Ireland and abroad. 

"I had never done wetland archaeology, and I was very nervous starting, but I absolutely loved it, and to this day, the bogs are my favourite place to work. I have since been made a supervisor working on a range of projects from the bogs of Kinnegad, to the Aran Islands and further afield in Wales,” she said.

 Coming Home

Then two years ago, she heard about the Thurles project. 

"Instantly, I wanted to be on it not only due to the location, working locally in this career is unheard of, but because there really is no better feeling than knowing you are dealing with your own history," she said adding that  lots of hard work went into the project, and it wasn't easy to work on such a busy road.

Maria hopes that the project is good for Thurles. 

"I hope people see beyond the disruption to the school runs and the drive to work and look at the immense work that everyone that was involved in the project, especially David Walsh Civil Engineering, did," Maria said. 

"A lot of other towns in Ireland have seen the funding for this before us, so it was our turn to avail of it, and we should grab it with both hands, because as a small town in the middle of Ireland, we definitely deserve it," Maria explained to the Tipperary Star.

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