East Kirk of St Nicholas dig 19 to 24th June – Week 21
Judith Stones, Keeper of Archaeology, writes...
I think that last time I foolishly wrote that by this week we’d have a clearer understanding of what we were finding on site! To me it seems even more complicated in fact, although very exciting and encouraging. We’ve been removing parts of what we think is rubble remaining from floors within the 12th century church building and are finding even earlier structural evidence below. Among the rubble are sections of a burnt mortar surface. In the next photo you can see Mhairi Macgregor taking a sample of the black charred material for radio-carbon dating. She’s putting it into aluminium foil, which is inert and will protect the sample from contamination between site and lab. Mhairi’s from Aberdeen, has just finished the third year of an archaeology degree at Edinburgh University and joined the dig team a couple of weeks ago. She’s very pleased to be working on this site, with the chance to excavate human skeletons, as she hopes to do a MSc in osteoarchaeology once she’s completed her initial degree.
In the westernmost area of the dig, near the viewing window, some very remarkable finds are being uncovered. Last week I mentioned the burial of the 6 to 8 year old child, in a ‘coffin’ made out of a split log, which may be the earliest interment so far found. Just to west of that is a curved portion of stone wall, and outside that curve and apparently ‘aligned’ with it, are the graves of seven babies and one small child. None of them was buried in a coffin, but several had stones carefully placed to support their heads and feet. In the next two photos, you can see the curved, almost semicircular walling and the little graves, one being excavated by Assistant Archaeologist and dig director Alison Cameron. The relationship of these features to other discoveries on the site, the shape of the wall and some other details, such as the ‘pillow’ stones, could be taken to suggest a date much earlier than the 12th century, perhaps in the early Christian period, long before the documented development of Aberdeen as a settlement. Now, that would be extraordinary – so we eagerly await the return of our radio carbon dates!
Another archaeological layer which may be of very early date appears in the next picture. I’m sure you can see the cracked organic material, which looks just like a dried-up cow pat – and could just possibly be that. We’ll find out when the sample has been examined by palaeoecologists who will tell us what microscopic seed and insect remains it contains – dung beetles, perhaps?
The site is increasingly at two different levels and will remain that way until the huge stone sleeper walls, which supported the roof of the 15th century choir, and divide the excavation area lengthwise into three sections, have been fully removed. In between those walls, the dig is becoming very deep, as you can see in the next photo.The sleeper walls serve as walkways from one part of the site to another and for safety reasons we’ve had metal gangways installed on top of the walls, to aid access. You’re looking west across the site, with St Mary’s Chapel behind you at a lower level and the public viewing window below the East Kirk Gallery, in the background of the photo.
Finally, you can see below Jan Dunbar’s drawing of the lead alloy religious or ‘pilgrim’ badge that I mentioned last week. It appears to show the Virgin Mary, seated, with the body of her dead son Jesus lying across her knees. Our Lady of Pity was a popular devotion in the Middle Ages, particularly in the 15th century, at the very time when, at St Nicholas, the crypt chapel of St Mary (now the Third World Shop) was being constructed. Interestingly, this image of compassion, or pietà, was found in the grave of the woman who suffered from rickets or osteomalacia, a softening of the bones caused by lack of vitamin D. The badge is going on display in the church today.
For further information, please contact judiths@aberdeencity.gov.uk or 01224 523658.
