East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 10th to 14th July 2006 - Week 24
Judith Stones, Keeper of Archaeology, writes...
This has been a short week, as Monday 10th was a local Aberdeen holiday and the site was closed, but there has been a lot going on. Over the weekend, the contractors removed the last of the 19th century cast iron columns which supported the East Kirk gallery (it’s now safely held in place by steel beams!). That allowed new areas of the site to be brought into the excavation. One of those areas contained a burial of probably 16th or 17th century date. The individual was a middle-aged woman, with a very dramatic case of scoliosis, a disease in which the spine curves into an ‘S’-shape, as you can see from the next photo. The cause of this illness is uncertain, but this woman must have suffered from it since childhood.
We’ve found more of the outline of what we have so far been thinking may be the rectangular east end of the 12th century church. The walls so far found do, as we suspected earlier, seem to be both narrower and shorter in length than the later 15th century building, and seem to have been supported by several external buttresses. Those buttresses were much needed, as the east wall was perched at the top of the steep slope leading down towards what is now Correction Wynd. Note the ‘so far been thinking’ phrase above! We’ve now found another big wall foundation a few centimetres ‘inside’ what we thought was the 12th century east end. That ‘new’ wall foundation seems to be earlier in date…so now we may have two 12th century east ends – or one 12th century and one 13th, or 14th…(photos to confuse you further next week!) We archaeologists can be a bit too simplistic in dealing with dates, though, making assumptions that because one piece of wall is earlier than another it ‘has’ to be a whole century earlier – when in fact it might only be earlier by one day.
On a related note, we’re delighted to have had a lot of media interest this week (‘6th-century church found in Aberdeen’ etc), but on site we’re being extremely cautious about dates until we have some real evidence from radio-carbon analysis, the first of which we expect to receive in a couple of weeks’ time. We managed to ‘turn the tables’ a bit and record some of the press activity, as you can see in the next photo.
Last time I mentioned a fragment of lettered window glass and now there’s a picture of it to show you.
It was found in the same area as the painted plaster I illustrated last week and was found amongst rubble from demolition of the 12th century church. We’ll need to get someone to cast an expert eye over the inscription, in the hope that we’ll be able to decide what it says – and there may be some clues as to its date too. We found a large amount of painted and stained medieval window glass at the site of the Carmelite Friary in Aberdeen, but not any evidence of lettering, which in this case would originally have shown up in the window as areas of clear glass within the overall brownish black wash. Burial has caused the glass to change colour to a dark grey, but it would have been translucent when new.
One or two burials which may be of 12th century or earlier date contained well-preserved remains of textile of some sort, particularly around the head and beneath the skeleton. We ‘re not sure yet what the material is – it looks like a plant fibre– but it has been carefully removed for conservation. Have a look at the next picture and see what you think.
In these cases the skeletons themselves have not survived well. In the next photo you can perhaps see the cloth remnants as a darker coloured area between the shadowy outlines of the legs.
We’re looking forward to telling you more about the site when you come on one of our tours (Mondays and Fridays 1.30pm) or at the next Open Day on Saturday 22 July (tours at 10.30, 11.30, 1.30 and 2.30).
For further information or comment, please contact judiths@aberdeencity.gov.uk or 01224 523658.
