Finds Emerge & Skills are Acquired at 54 Victoria Street

The test pit ‘Dig’ at the premises of the Blide Trust, 54 Victoria Street Kirkwall was still being worked on when I visited again on Saturday.

Orkney Blide Trust 2

Soil was being sifted leaving behind an ever growing pile .

Finds were being cleaned, sorted and painstakingly recorded. Volunteers were learning new skills in this aspect of archaeology from the experts there.

The finds will be able to tell the researchers what kind of food the families who occupied the building were eating and also some aspects of their daily lives. If you look closely you will see there are several bits of broken crockery and clay pipes.

Looking carefully at this picture you will also see the block of worked red sandstone  wedged in the wall which was probably intended for the Bishop’s Palace or other high status building.

Blide Trust wall SatThis is only the start of what is a most exciting and interesting project set in the heart of Kirkwall.

Blide Trust Gardens SatYou can read more about it here: Unearthing the History of 54 Victoria Street Kirkwall

Orkney Blide Trust 1

Reporter: Fiona Grahame


 

 

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4 replies »

  1. Interesting to see some fragments of cut red sandstone with a possible relationship to the construction of the cathedral

  2. Yesterdays rubbish = Todays ‘finds’. The rubbish would go down the bottom of the garden, or an out of the way corner. What could be burnt, would be burnt, leaving the rest, for us to find. I’m looking forward to when they start on the possible site of the rubbish heap for the Hall of Clestrain – might even find something which was used by The Man Himself
    https://theorkneynews.scot/2017/07/26/john-rae-society-open-day-at-clestrain-house/

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