Meanwhile....nearly fourteen hundred solstices later...

Another solstice. Another year half gone. A thick bank of cloud obscured the horizon so the actual sunrise, the appearance of the sun between sea and sky, could not be seen clearly.  Would that have been significant to those watchers, thousands of years ago, for whom the solstice was one of the great turning points of the year? How would they have interpreted it?

Interpreting the past is always difficult if not impossible.   We are digging in the field next to the ruins of our Benedictine priory, seeking some evidence of the original Anglo-Saxon church of St Aebba, the bringer of Christianity to the peoples of the area, the remnants of the Goddodin who were defeated in their battles against the incomers and absorbed into the rising power of Northumbria.

The field has been screened by metal detectors, dowsed, and scanned by geophysical radar devices. There are signs of previous occupation but, of course, Aebba's church will be under the later 12th and 14th century buildings.  It would be nice to find some evidence dating back to the 7th century or, at least, to Anglo Saxon times.

Trenching and trowelling is hard work and finds are rare and disappointments are common.

Very early on, a piece of "ceramic" just leapt out at me but, despite its appearance, it turned out to be just an unusual stone,  Oh well, scrape some more earth into a bucket. 

Disappointment - just an unusual stone

Stuff is now appearing, some ceramics, animal bones, lots of animal bones. Maybe we are excavating the priory abattoir.   Next week there are some deeper layers to explore so who knows what will surface.

Medieval pottery

The vallum, the outer perimeter earth bank of the monastic site is becoming evident and we are getting deeper into the history.

 As I scraped away at the in-fill of ditches, I wondered about the ordinary folk given this new religion, probably on the command of their ruler who would have no wish to offend Aebba, the sister of the powerful King, later Saint, Oswald of Northumbria. Did they still get up to see the sunrise at the solstice and offer a prayer to their old gods?    After all, we still touch wood for luck, throw salt over our shoulder and say good morning to magpies.  Old habits die hard.