A human jawbone, which was unearthed during Monmouth Archaeological Society's excavations at 22-24 Monnow Street (now Merlin's), has been Radio Carbon dated to around AD 1220.

The complete jaw, probably from a young man in his early 20s, was found to the rear of the shop and was submitted by the Society to the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre at East Kilbride for dating. The calibrated age was 730 years, plus or minus 30, before the present (taken as AD 1950).

Society members are working on the extensive archive from Monnow Street and for the past two years have been concentrating on No's 22-24 and especially on the street frontage with its large wooden building remains.

The building is believed to be post-Roman but pre-Norman which would make it one of the more important structures from early medieval Wales.