The start of Week 3

A glorious sunny day to the start of our third week. We weren't long on site before the thermals were discarded and the bottles of sun lotion that have been sitting on our window sill didn't seem quite so misplaced.. It was also a day of fabulous home-baking; apple and loganberry tart from Hazel and brownies from Sean! A diet-dig this ain't...

Today we were visited by three classes from the Model Primary School along with a coachload of mostly American tourists who had an added stop on their Derry City tour. People called by throughout the day including Canon Howe and his wife who used to live in the Rectory formerly on this site. They were amazed with the excavation and amused that their Rhode Island hens used to run about in the garden above all this (it would be great to get a photo if it exists..).

We lifted the last two of the five burials we had planned to excavate. One of these, one of the pair in the double burial, displayed an unusual anomaly. When Grace and Darbhina (volunteer) lifted the lower arm bones of the right arm, the radius and ulna, they discovered an elongated depression or hollow running across  the vertebrae underneath where the arm had rested. This is a post-mortem anomaly but suggests that the vertebrae must have been unusually soft or week.

Grace and Darbhina excavating one of the skeletons which displayed an elongated depression in the vertebrae - close-up below.

The excavated grave cuts

 

We also completed the recording of the grave cuts (context sheets and profiles) and planned the site. Greg visited us again and metal detected the spoil discovering another musket shot, smaller than the two we had previously found (possibly a pistol shot?).

We also found a worked piece of stone that has a circular cut, through which it has been broken - possibly a door pivot stone?

A pivot stone?