This one, lying flat on the floor of St Mary's Church in Gowran, County Kilkenny, offers nothing of the sort. No inscription, no carved device, no clue at all as to who is commemorated beneath it. It is, in its silence, a small puzzle.

The slab lies in the nave of St Mary's, a 13th-century collegiate church that still stands largely intact in the Kilkenny village of Gowran. The stone itself is conglomerate sandstone, tapering slightly from head to foot in the manner typical of medieval grave markers, and measures just under one and a half metres in length. Around its upper edge runs a chamfer, a narrow angled cut that gives the slab a finished, considered quality despite the absence of any further ornament. A small roughly square chip is missing from the upper right-hand corner, whether from age, accident, or some earlier disturbance is not recorded. The precise position of the slab has been carefully noted: it lies 1.3 metres from the southern wall and 6.8 metres from the eastern wall of the south aisle, coordinates that speak to the methodical work of recording what survives even when what survives reveals so little.

Visitors to St Mary's, which remains in use and retains a remarkable collection of medieval effigies and tomb monuments, can view the slab in situ on the nave floor. It is easy to walk past without noticing, which is perhaps the most fitting thing about it.