East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 3rd to 7th July 2006 - Week 23
Judith Stones, Keeper of Archaeology, writes..
You may remember that several weeks ago I mentioned that we’d found a mussel shell containing traces of red pigment. Indeed some people reading this may have seen the real thing when it was on display in the church a while ago. At that point, although we’d found that trace of the artist’s or painter’s trade, there had been little sign of the use of colour in the building – although we knew that it was likely that the medieval interior would have been brightly adorned. Just at the end of last week, amongst what appeared to be demolition rubble from the 12th century east end, were some fragments of painted plaster. They seem to be free of designs or drawings or decorative detail, but covered with a red or ochre wash, as you can see in the photo.
Among that same rubble was a beautiful piece of window glass, also perhaps from the 12th century church. It has part of an inscription on it and is the first fragment of lettered medieval window glass to have been found in Aberdeen. We’re trying to decipher it at the moment, so I hope to say more about it next week.
In the next photo you can see two stone segments being excavated by one of the site assistants, Kevin Appleton.
And in the following view, one of the pieces of stonework is placed, for comparison, beside one of the piers in the existing transepts of St Nicholas.
It is possible that that the newly discovered stones may have been part of one of the upright shafts of such a pier. The stones probably derive from the demolition of the 15th century east end – notice they are different from the existing examples in the photo, which may be 12th century in origin.
I thought I’d show a couple of updated views of features I mentioned last week. The stone ‘coffin’, one of several which may be pre-12th century in date, has been investigated further and can be seen more clearly in this week’s photo.
You can perhaps see the remains of the stones which formed the lid, where they have been broken off, at the ‘foot’ end and above the far side of the coffin. The coffin was placed, stone by stone, into an oval cut in the ground, with the upright stones being supported where necessary by smaller ones. Mortar was used in places (a small patch is visible in the foreground, at the corner, on the left) partly perhaps to hold the ‘box’ together and partly to make it look better. The very large stones looming over the coffin are part of a different feature altogether.
The next photo shows a detail of one end of a wooden ‘split log’ coffin, the more recently found and better preserved of the two examples so far excavated on site.
Last week I think I wrote that Margot Wright, from the University of Aberdeen’s Conservation Lab at Marischal Museum, was coming to look at it. The photo shows the part which she thinks is in good enough condition to lift from the ground intact and take to the lab for further examination and conservation. She’ll be working on that during the forthcoming week.
We’re very grateful to those who are coming on our site tours – and hope to see more of you.
Please remember that there will be no tours on Monday 10 July, as it is a public holiday and the dig will be closed.
Our next Saturday Open Day is on 22 July, when the church will be open from 10am to 4pm and there will be excavation tours at 10.30, 11.30, 1.30 and 2.30.
