Excavation

Date 21 July 2017

Event ID 1040565

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1040565

NO 1082 2380 (NO12SW 57) Excavations were finally completed on 21 July 2017. Over the course of the 129 weeks of the excavation the entire two phases of the Carmelite church were excavated with a final total of 302 burials being lifted from the interior of the building (including 102 found in 2008). A further wood-lined grave was excavated at the W end of the extended church which contained three individuals, one with an iron bracelet on their wrist and another with a wooden ‘staff’. Evidence was recovered for a metalled pathway entering the friary precinct from the W associated with a courtyard with a single ‘post’ setting. This pathway overlay an extensive area of low temperature burning and several small hearths and two ‘ovens’, this is currently being interpreted as evidence for site welfare facilities for the builders of the 13th-century Carmelite church. Tentative evidence was revealed under the W end of that church for a possible earlier building, this included a cross-incised stone and wider rough stone foundations. Excavation of the W range was completed confirming that its walls had been substantially robbed although evidence for at least two green sandstone internal floor surfaces were recorded. The western cloister walk was defined and the badly damaged remains of an arcade line were recorded. The western end of the S range was located, including evidence for an internal waste drainage system probably taking waste from elsewhere in the complex out through its W wall. The site’s water supply was traced from where it entered the site at the NW down to where it served the interior of the S range as a surviving wooden trough (this was lifted for future analysis). To the S of the S range a series of rough stone courtyards were excavated upon which had been dumped vast deposits of oyster shell food waste. The northern edge of the southern precinct boundary around the friary complex was picked up right against the southern edge of the excavated area.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: Manorgate Ltd

Derek Hall

(Source: DES, Volume 18)

OASIS ID: derekhal1-183159