East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 18th - 21st September 2006 - Week 34
East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 18th to 21st September 2006– Week 34
Judith Stones is on holiday this week so ‘Special Correspondant’ Abeer Ralston (in her last week on site before she leaves to have a baby) writes…
Last week Judith showed you detailed pictures of the structure attached to the north wall of the 12th to early 13th-century church, which we call “the sacristy”. The ground floor of this structure has been excavated this week and we discovered the only pottery fragments to be found discarded where they were originally broken (rather than sherds of pottery which have been moved around many times by earth moving). The pottery sherds found on the floor of this lower room suggests that ceramic vessels were being used in the room and, when broken, the fragments thrown into the corner of the room, the 14th century equivalent of sweeping the dirt under the carpet. The next photo shows some of the pottery fragments that we discovered. As the photo illustrates, some of these fragments are glazed.
One of the important fragments is from a long-necked beaker or jug (below) made in Germany in the 14th century. It was found by Jack Dunbar (you can see his picture later in this diary demolishing the east wall 12th or early 13th century church).
Jack also found this ruby red glass fragment in the floor of the sacristy. It is a fragment from an early stained glass window. The scale is in centimetres in all the finds photos.
Last week Jack found many interesting small finds that all the team were very excited about, specially me since I cannot dig at the moment and I have been sorting the small finds that everyone excavates, and of course still doing the talks which some of you will have been to! This is my last week on the dig. It is now less that two weeks till my due date (2nd October).
This week Ali was busy excavating and drawing a child cist burial (just below the viewing window) that was discovered earlier but it was under the 19th century foundation pillar in the west end of the central area. The next photo shows Ali using the drawing frame to record each stone accurately. We have decided to leave this cist in place for the moment as it’s not in the way and we feel it’s good for visitors to see it, just under the window beside the circular wall which is probably the east end apse of the 11th-century church.
Also this week we have started the demolishing of the late 12th to early 13th-century east gable wall. The next picture shows Stewart (in the blue vest) and Jack (in the green T-shirt) dismantling the wall after it had been recorded and drawn.
We also discovered another buttress that supported the south wall of the 12th-century church. Next week we will show you the pictures of this buttress as it is still being excavated. We also expect to find another buttress supporting the north wall.
Again this week Sandra and I used her “impressive studio” to photograph the small finds on top of one of the gravestones in the graveyard of the church on a nice sunny day. She took this photo of me arranging the pottery fragments.
This week I would like to show you couple of very interesting small finds that were discovered on the site this week. The first one is a large pin that was found by Gemma in the north part of the graveyard of the late 12th to early 13th century-church.
The second find is two parts of a copper alloy object, which might be part of a horse harness. They were found on the floor of the sacristy.
There will be no tours on FRIDAY 22ND or MONDAY 25TH SEPTEMBER
The next excavation Open Day, with tours, will be on Saturday 14 October (10am to 3pm).
Or view the excavation from the gallery and the downstairs viewing window:
Until 23 September, opening hours of the church are 12 noon to 4pm Mondays to Fridays, and 1pm to 3pm on Saturdays. Thereafter, the church will be open Mondays and Fridays only, 12 noon to 3pm, with tours on Mondays and Friday at 1.30pm.
