Archaeology Notes

Event ID 645654

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/645654

NJ90NW 1223 centred 9434 0622

See also NJ90NW 1122.

Aberdeen City Council carried out trial excavation within this overgrown and derelict area in February and March 2000; the excavation of two trenches revealed between 0.6 and 1.3m depth of garden soil with natural sand beneath. No archaeological layers earlier than the 19th century were identified, confirming the prior suggestion that the pre-existing St Katherine's Hill was extensively scarped during the construction of nearby Union Street.

A decorated armorial panel found built into the N boundary wall of 24 Adephi was recorded and removed.

[No artifacts recovered in excavation are described in detail; the armorial panel is illustrated but its present location is unstated. The location of the finds is not stated but a historical account is incorporated in the report].

Information from Alison Cameron, Assistant Archaeologist, Aberdeen City Council, 21 September 2000.

NMRS, MS/712/97.

NJ 943 062 The Adelphi lies on the central point of St Katherine's Hill, one of the knolls and ridges on which the settlement of Aberdeen developed from the 12th century. A small assessment uncovered 19th-century garden soils, and confirmed the locally held view that St Katherine's Hill was scarped during the construction of Union Street in the early 19th century.

A Cameron 2000.

NJ 943 062 A 17th-century armorial panel was recovered from a boundary wall behind 24 Adelphi during redevelopment. The stone probably came originally from a house in nearby Shiprow. In the late 19th century, when it was first recorded, it was still possible to make out the initials 'AB IC' and the date, 1634, but the sandstone face is now much weathered. The initials may refer to Alexander Burnett, who became a Baillie of Aberdeen in 1650, and his wife Isabella Cumming, who died in 1670. The stone, currently at Aberdeen Maritime Museum, will be placed within the new development.

Sponsor: City of Aberdeen.

A Cameron and J Stones 2001.