Rushen Abbey - 2003 Dig Diary

The concrete sill (foundations for the back wall) of the dance floor has been somewhat pushed about during demolition. Large pieces of concrete remain in the baulk.

This is a pit full of stones showing through the baulk. If you have visited the site and stood on the grassy bank to watch the excavations or to talk to the archaeologists, you would have been stood right above this!

There are faint stripes of a buried plough soil starting to show, from bottom right toward the top left.

Ray and Buster are cleaning "the sections" (walls of the trench). The pit full of stones is to Buster's right.

Thursday 17th July

Ray, Alex, Marion and Jenny hard at work. This photograph is aligned to look straight along the plough ridge and furrow marks.

Buster has just finished trowelling across the "pit within a ditch" feature.

Stripes are starting to appear , especially bottom left.

A stoney spread has appeared within Jenny's excavation area.

Friday 18th July

The Chapterhouse from the "outside"

After the rain. 9.00am. A couple of small excavations were started yesterday into a dark stripe (ridge).

Half an hour later, and viewed from the other end, the ridge and furrow stripes are clearly visible.

Lunch time. The small trenches cut across the "ridges" reveal their secrets...... Is that a ridge I see before me?

Meanwhile, on the other side of the excavations, Jenny's team have uncovered a stoney surface.

Ray's team continue work on the ridge and furrow excavations.

Buster (on his 50th birthday) sets up the photographic scale.

Jo holding the stepladder for Jenny to take some "aerial" shots.

On to Week Seven....