Exploring Moluag’s Monastery on Lismore, September 2021
Our Archaeologists:
Dr Clare Ellis, Argyll Archaeology and Dr Angela Boyle Burial Archaeologist
Clare will be leading our dig again this year. The partnership started in 2015 when she supervised the lifting and display of eight medieval graveslabs, followed by 2 seasons exploring the cathedral nave (2016&17), the first dig of the medieval cemetery in 2018, and organisation of the geophysical survey (which will guide this year’s work) in 2019. She has been inspirational in training our team of volunteer diggers, leading us cheerfully whatever the weather!
On her website, you can discover the extraordinary range of projects she has been involved with since setting up Argyll Archaeology in 2003, as well as her wide range of professional skills. We are particularly interested in the Early Church digs she has done on Mull and Iona, including the Chapel at Baliscate.
This year we are delighted, and extremely fortunate, to have leading ostioarchaeologist Angela Boyle with us for the full three weeks. Over a career spanning 30 years, she has been involved in many fascinating projects across the UK and in Europe (see her website for details; and her extensive list of publications). Her work involves the recording and interpretation of buried human bone, including determinations of age, gender and state of health. She works in collaboration with other specialists, providing complementary information, for example, about date of burial and place of origin. As a result of these contacts, she has been able to secure for us £10,000-worth of DNA analyses by the Crick Institute in London as part of the “1000 Ancient British Genomes” project ( https://www.crick.ac.uk/news/2019-10-25_uncovering-5000-years-of-genetic-evolution-from-the-stone-age-to-the-21st-century ).
Recently, she was a leading player in the project that achieved an amazing reconstruction of the appearance of a Copper age woman, buried 4,250 years ago in Caithness. See her face at:https://archaeology.co.uk/articles/features/investigating-ava.htm
She was a young woman aged around 20 at her death, buried with a pottery “beaker” and (extraordinarily) with a joint of beef, presumably for sustenance on her journey. DNA analyses (similar to what we hope to gain from our burials) shows that she was likely to have had brown eyes, black hair and a dark complexion. Chemical analyses of her bones show that she had been born not far from the burial site, but her DNA indicates that she was the descendant of recent migrants from Europe.
Script Robert Hay
Repor: Pauline Dowling
4 August 2021
Medieval Graveslabs
Archaeological dig 2018 Excavating possible graves
Mark Thacker and Clare Ellis recording three fragments of window moulding from the cathedral nave, August 2016
Dr Angela Boyle