2024’s top finds – Structure Twenty-Seven’s north-western corner

As 2024 ebbs away, we thought it would be good to look back over this year’s favourite finds and discoveries. And there were plenty to choose from!

We’ll post each one (in no particular order) between now and December 31.

We’ll begin in Trench T, and the operation to excavate Structure Twenty-Seven’s northern wall.

First encountered in 2015, Twenty-Seven lay at the southern end of Trench T.

It was built directly on the natural boulder clay and subsequently buried under a massive mound of ash, midden and refuse.

At some point after this, Structure Twenty-Seven fell victim to major episodes of stone robbing that saw most of its south-eastern and south-western walls removed.

We had long hoped that more of the north-western wall had survived, and, in 2022, our prayers were answered. As the overlying midden and rubble layers were removed the stunning quality of the surviving wall’s stonework shone through. It was, quite simply, exquisite.

The question at the start of the 2024 season was how much of the north-western and northern walls had survived. And the only way to answer that question was to dig.

But that could only take place after a massive operation to shift tonnes of midden that overlaid the northern end of the building and loomed over it. This was becoming unstable in place so needed to be stripped back before work in the vicinity of Twenty-Seven could begin.

And on July 8, we were rewarded with our first glimpse of the building’s north-western corner.

By the end of the day the entire corner had been exposed as well as another six metres of the beautiful north-western wall. As expected, the newly uncovered corner was as remarkable as its south-western counterpart.

Unfortunately, the northern wall was not as well-preserved as we had initially hoped but enough survived to confirm the presence of a single, narrow entrance.

Outside the north-western corner, and tying in with finds from 2023, was a huge deposit of animal bone. Hundreds of bones were recovered from the area, including cattle, sheep and pig. It was extensively chopped and is clearly the remains of a very extensive meal/feast or feasts.

Are we looking at something akin to the decommissioning feast around Structure Ten?