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Archaeologists have gained further historical insight into the Roman Fort at the Nunnery in Alderney, including the discovery of a Roman courtyard.
Excavations of the 1700 year old site has found a Roman courtyard a little over a metre below modern ground, made up of a double layer of flagstones embedded in clay and in one place also capped by mortar.
Pictured: Diagram of the Roman Fort at the Nunnery in Alderney.
Two trenches discovered the remains of ‘Building D’, which is thought could be part of the Tudor Governor of Alderney’s house.
The reported house was built over the Roman courtyard and used the Roman tower for its north wall.
The interior of the 1793 powder magazine was found to be largely dug out when the magazine was built, leaving only a small triangle of cobbled floor.
More plaster was revealed at the base of the ‘gun ramp’, which suggests that originally the lower parts of this had been the south wall of the building. Only when it was ruined did it become a ramp.
Dr Monaghan said: “We confirmed that the Roman tower walls had been levelled-off, probably by British engineers refurbishing the fort around 1793.
Pictured: Nich Hogben and Adrian Nicolle mark the inner and outer faces of the Roman tower wall (Credit: Dig Alderney).
“The Germans inserted their Type 501 bunker neatly into the tower ruins, using the north and south internal walls effectively as shuttering to pour their concrete.
“Unfortunately, they dug out the entire interior of the tower to do this, destroying any evidence for internal structures or floors.”
Dig Alderney were granted permission to excavate four areas, however with a run of good weather, dug just two sites on this occasion.
The team plans to return in Spring 2022 in an attempt to answer outstanding questions regarding the medieval and Tudor history of the site.
Pictured Top: Mike Dean and Dr Jason Monaghan dicuss how the magazine is built on top of the Tudor 'Building D' (Credit: David Nash).
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