East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 14-18 Aug Week 29
East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 14th to 18th August 2006 – Week 29
Judith Stones, Keeper of Archaeology, writes…
Since I last wrote, there’s been a lot of change on site. The new system of walkways has been established and the last portions of the sleeper walls which supported the roof of the 15th century choir have been removed – well… almost. The contractors are in the process of clearing out from the site some of the huge stones from those walls, as the first picture shows.
You’ll notice the use of pulleys – no doubt similar techniques were used by the medieval builders 500 years ago – but the presence of a mini-digger and mechanised truck does help too!
The next photo shows the excavation as it now appears, looking towards the north-west.
You may notice in the middle of the wall at the right hand side an area where some of the archaeological layers fell away at the end of last week, exposing the inner foundations of the north wall of the 19th-century East Kirk. Some green sandbags are stacked at the left edge of the piece of wall I mean. Above that area is a little ‘frill’ of lighter stonework, which we’ve been thinking up to now was the bottom of the wall of the 15th-century choir. We’re still trying to work out what’s happening there, as that earlier stonework seems to have been carefully tied into the 19th century work – but we wonder why the later builders didn’t simply demolish the earlier wall rather than incorporate those few lower courses of it into their structure.
In the next picture you can see how different the south wall is from that north wall I’ve just been describing.
At the south, the 15th century foundations went down much deeper. You may be able to pick out their lighter colour and rough boulder foundations immediately below the left walkway.
You may have gathered by now that the site looks a bit of a mess, but it’s all very purposeful, nonetheless! At the east end of the dig, we’re making great progress in the graveyard outside the pre-15th century east end of the church. Many burials have been carefully recorded and the skeletons removed. We’re starting to hit the ‘natural’ undisturbed subsoil in this location, so what you see in the next photo are the lowest and earliest of those burials, dating from when that east end was new – maybe around the early 13th century.
The east end wall is on the right, with the west wall of the 15th century St Mary’s Chapel on the left of the picture. A new member of the team during the school holidays has been Michaela Strachan, seen to the right in the next picture, excavating a burial with Iraia Arabaolaza, one of the human bone experts on site.
Michaela, a 4th year student at Cults Academy, was born in Aberdeen but has recently returned from a few years in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She says she’s enjoyed learning from other people and hopes to make a career in archaeology.
All the stones coming out of the 15th century sleeper walls are being carefully examined to see if they are decorated, moulded or inscribed in any way – and quite a lot of them are. The next two photos show some recently discovered examples. Interpretation of the yellow sandstone block with the little holes in it will be obvious to some, but not yet to us!
And the star is a mason’s mark, quite commonly found, although this is the first example we’ve excavated in Aberdeen. Similar marks are recorded at Melrose Abbey and Rosslyn Chapel (which you may have heard of!).
For further information and comment, please contact judiths@aberdeencity.gov.uk: 01224 523658.
