August 8, 2018
Work continued at Building 3 removing the thick deposits of wind-blown sand. In the western chamber of the structure the sand was up to 1.5m deep! We systematically removed the sand, collecting marine shell and bone by meter square until we hit a series of intact archaeological deposits inside and outside of the building. In the interior of the building we encountered occupation layers consisting of dark brown sand with significant amounts of marine shell (limpets and winkles) and butchered animal bone. Outside of the building we found a thick layer of charcoal-rich material that seems to represent a refuse dump. Our midden trench is progressing well. Due to the very thin and fragile character of the layers we have opted to dig the feature in spits of 5cm. For our Wednesday field trip we headed to Kildavnet old graveyard to practice recording funerary monuments. The graveyard is medieval in origin and has a diverse array of 19th and 20th century headstones.
