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RUSHEN ABBEY

ARCHAEOLOGY NEWS

This Week's News                                                                               No. 4                                           July 9th  2003                

Last Wednesday we welcomed our second batch of University of Liverpool students onto the site, and they have settled in quickly and seem to be enjoying themselves. All the areas that are to be dug this year have ha the turf and the top 30cm of soil removed by a combination of mattock, trowel and spade. We are now into more interesting archaeology, and will proceed with great caution. Small trowels are the chosen weapon from now on!

On Friday we enjoyed a visit by Peel Clothworkers Primary School. The children came up with some excellent questions such as: "When did the Iron Age end?" Not easy to give a short and definitive answer to that one! This week, as well as digging in the rain, we will be preparing ourselves for the Open Day next Sunday. The students will be explaining the site to visitors, and some of our pottery finds will be kept aside for visitors to wash.   

Finds                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

At long last the never ending supply of broken glass, rusty nails, fragments of modern roof tile and pieces of plant pot seems to be coming to an end. We've found a couple of small pieces of medieval pottery, one found lying in he middle of the main trench, and one by "Buster" in a small pit he is excavating (see picture below).

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Calendar of Events                                                                                                                                                                                        

ARCHAEOLOGY

Sunday July 13th ...................................................... "Excavation at Rushen Abbey" 10.00am to 4.00pm

Wednesday July 16th ................................................ Final group of University students arrived on site to dig

Saturday & Sunday, 19th & 20th July ........................ National Archaeology Days : Cregneash 11.00am to 4.00pm

OTHER EVENTS

Sunday July 27th  ...................................................... "Songs of Praise" at Rushen Abbey 2.30pm

Why are we digging at Rushen Abbey  ?                                                                                                                                    

The Abbey was founded in 1134 by Savignac monks from Furness in Cumbria at the invitation of the Manx King Olaf 1st. In 1153 Pope Eugenius III in confirming the grant, adds the intriguing information that the Abbey occupied the site of the monastery of St. Leoc, about which we have no further information. Geo-physical survey work carried in 1997 suggested that there were several deep ditches in and around the area in which the archaeologists are currently working, and that the arrangement of these ditches suggested the boundaries of a early Christian burial ground. "Lintel" graves were recorded at the east end of the excavation site back in 1926 when a dance floor (later part of the Academy Night Club, and later still, a gymnasium) was being constructed.

Some of the main aims of the excavations are to find out the extent of the burial ground (but not to excavate graves), and see whether there is an trace left of religious buildings before the Abbey. Many large abbeys were built on sites that had already had some religious importance, such as small chapels (or keeills as they are known in the Island). Preliminary test pits, dug in 1998, produced some interesting organic remains in some of the ditches mentioned above. In particular some burnt grain was radiocarbon dated to 1075-1155 AD. These dates straddle the founding date of the Abbey, so unfortunately we cannot be sure if the grain was from the Savignac period of the Abbey (1134-1147) or from an earlier occupation of the site.

What do we hope to find this year ?                                                                                                                                              

Our main aim is to find structures, or evidence of structures, that would assist in our understanding of the development of the site in the 11th and 12th centuries in particular.

Ideally, in connection with such structures, we would hope to find some organic material (wood, bone, etc.) from which we could get some fairly precise radiocarbon dates. Alternatively a coin or two in a sound archaeological context (e.g. within a particular floor level) would be quite handy!

As we are still working around an area which contains some burials, we may come across some burial goods which would assist in dating the graves. 

 Manx National Heritage

This excavation is funded by Manx National Heritage and the University of Liverpool, and is being carried out by the Centre for Manx Studies on behalf of Manx National Heritage. All content is (c) Centre for Manx Studies 2003