Day 1: …and we are off and running!

Sunny and bright, this was the perfect start to this year’s summer excavation. After stripping the site (see last blog post) today was about cleaning off the loose and beginning to expose the features below. As the day wore on, more and more features came to light. The next few weeks are certainly looking exciting!

Students getting their site safety briefing

Running east-west across the site we have found a large wall which we believe to be a continuation of the curtain wall which has been found at other places on the site. At around two-meters wide, this wall would have been a sizeable construction, and visible from miles around. After much cleaning, the full width and form began to take shape. In places there were square-shaped stone protrusions extending from the wall which we believe could be buttresses or the bases of towers. As such a big construction which no longer stands, understanding more about this feature will undoubtedly inform our interpretations of how this site looked within its wider landscape and its defensive capabilities. We really look forward to excavating these in the coming days and learning more about the wall. Make sure to check back to follow the progress of this feature.

The wall beginning to unveil itself by lunchtime

Today was also a really good day for finds. For most of our undergraduates this was their first day on site and some of them have already found some amazing finds. Highlights include a lovely bit of medieval carved masonry found by Claudia which looks like a fragment from a stone doorway. Similarly, Holly and Leah also found a bit of roof tile complete with the hole for the peg in it. Megan and Isabel also found an interesting metal object which could be some kind of pin. We have already sent it off to our conservation team at Durham University to investigate further. Oyster shells and bits of bone were abundant on site, which corresponds with our belief that this area was the site of medieval kitchens. These finds compliment those found by George our metal detectorist who found an array of finds last week, including coins, jettons and book clasps.

One surprising archaeological discovery was the trench of previous excavation conducted in the late-1980’s close to the wall of the St Peter’s Chapel. While we had known about this excavation, we were still a little surprised to pick it up in our excavations. This excavation had been shallow, and after excavating this confusing feature, our suspicions were realised upon finding the old trench peg. The archaeology of archaeology, this dig is getting meta.

Dig Leader Chris with the 1980's trench peg.

Make sure to check back on the blog each night for more, and be sure to follow us on social media for on-site updates!