Now Whitegates is no more, it becomes the target of this year's excavation. We'll be investigating the site from 2 to 23 May as intriguing finds of several periods were found in this area during the nineteenth century. #Alderney #Archaeology

Happy Ides of March!

Something only apparent when a fully surveyed modern plan of the Nunnery is complete is that the tower is offset about a metre to seaward. This suggests the tower was built first, then the Romans didn't have enough space to fit the fort walls in on the east side so 1/2 #Alderney #RomanFort

After several years' work by members of our team, the draft manuscript of 'A Late #RomanFort on #Alderney' is off to the publisher. Next comes 'peer review'; we will then address the comments before the final text is agreed. Hopefully BAR Publishing will publish the book in mid-2026. #Archaeology

Dr Jason Monaghan is giving an online lecture to the Yorkshire Archaeological and Historical Society at 2pm today. Link in comments. Join Zoom Meeting us02web.zoom.us/j/8156210756... Meeting ID: 815 6210 7563 Passcode: 425916

Spreading the word. Dr Jason Monaghan gave a talk to 40 members of the East Riding Archaeological Society at Hull University. The fort at the Nunnery has close parallels to four forts on the Yorkshire coast but is much better preserved, so should help in the interpretation of those sites. #Alderney

We're quietly working on the #Nunnery monograph. This month's task is to complete the list of diagrams and photographs. Colleagues are pitching in to take new pictures of the site we need for the publication. Alan Perks took this great drone shot showing the whole east wall.

Day 17-18 and it's a wrap! The excavation at Les Huguettes is concluded, the main structure has been protected with plastic and the site will be backfilled with the kind assistance of States Works. The final video from the site is here 1/2 youtu.be/AtHgb3nLzn4?...

Day 16 and we're almost done. Dr Phil de Jersey will be giving a lecture on the dig at the Island Hall at 1800 tonight (Thursday). 1/2

Day 15. A look at a rectangular structure and ditch at the top of the site. #Alderney #IronAge youtu.be/WnsnNB_uHJE?...

Days 12 to 14. The dig is approaching its end, with the last features being explored. Meanwhile the essential post-excavation work is taking place at the Nunnery. In the picture John is gently cleaning the finds and then setting them out in the sun to dry. 1/2

Day 12. One of the team took this snap out of the window of an Aurigny. Longis bay is at the top, with the Nunnery at its head. The Iron Age site is the teardrop shape at bottom of the image. No video today.

Day 11. Advance notice that Dr Phil de Jersey will be giving a talk at the Island Hall on Thursday 22nd May at 6pm. Admission free, run in conjunction with the @alderney society. 1/2 #Alderney #IronAge

Day 10. Dr Matthew Adeleye of Cambridge University visited the site today and took samples from the hearth area. These will be analysed for evidence of the local environment in the Iron Age. #Alderney #IronAge #Archaeology 1/2

Day 9 and the extensions to the trench are being cleared. Photo from shows the curvilinear structure around the hearth at the bottom of the site. The German trench has almost been dug out. In the foreground a later structure is being revealed. It is clay bonded and may have a rectangular plan. 1/2

Day 8. A little overnight rain brings out the colours in the site. Photo shows the hearth at the centre of the curving structure. #Alderney #IronAge #Archaeology Today's video update here youtu.be/ZBfjmV-WfCw?...

Famous tomb said to hold Alexander the Great's father actually contains younger man, a woman and 6 babies, study finds | Live Science 🏺 #ClassicsBluesky #BlueskyClassics #AncientBluesky 🏛️

Day 7 at Les Huguettes, #Alderney. We're clearing and planning the #IronAge structure but also turning attention to structures emerging at the top of the site. See today's video youtu.be/DAbvHPKh53k?...

Day 6 and we're cleaning up the building after removing the central baulk. A nice haul of Iron Age potsherds from one area of the site today. #Alderney #IronAge Watch the video here youtu.be/KkOcKbGgnJQ?...

Day 5 on HUG25. We are making progress clearing the area around the building and are removing the central baulk. Today's video is here. youtu.be/NdFZ_yqA6mM?...

Day 4. In the shot you can see the German trench snaking up the site has now been cleared. We are working to clean up parts of the Iron Age roundhouse ( left and under blue plastic) and tackling a large limpet midden ( top right). Today's video is here youtu.be/0fRYON_ISCM?...

Day 3 and we've opened up a second section of the trench, cleared a German feature and started to investigate what looks like a hearth. See today's video (some wind noise) youtu.be/HYEUqJ-icHE?... #Alderney #DigAlderney #IronAge settlement

Day 2 and there are now nine of us on site. The rain mostly stayed away and by afternoon mattocks had given way to trowels as features begin to emerge. See Phil's video m.youtube.com/watch?v=nXxg... #Alderney #DigAlderney #IronAge

The 2025 Huguettes excavation @digalderney.bsky.social is underway!

Day one at Les Huguettes, site HUG25. Our six diggers cleared 30 square metres of topsoil thick with roots. We found plenty of golf balls that went well astray of the greens, and by the end of the afternoon the first hints of the Iron Age settlement we're looking for.

And we're off! Our advance party beat the travel Gremlins to arrive in Alderney. The tools have been assembled, with thanks to the Alderney Society, the ground cleared by the Alderney Wildlife Trust. The first trench of the 2025 excavation has been laid out and digging begins today!

Dr Jason Monaghan will be giving a lecture on 'A Late Roman Building on Longis Common' at the Frossard Theatre, Guernsey, on Tuesday 25th March at 7.30pm. Admission free.

From Guernsey Museum Facebook page but relates to our 2019 excavation. Read text. #Alderney #IronAge

Further excavation of Roman town to be carried out. ClassicsBluesky 🏺 www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

A couple of good reads about the testing of the bones believed to be Teodomiro, the bishop who founded the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage 12 centuries ago. One from EL PAÍS, the other long link is to Antiquity Journal www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

A final phase of ancient activity on the Les Mielles site appears to have taken place in the post-Roman period. Merovigian Frankish pottery and glass (6/7th century) were found in Room 3 in 2019. This year we found further ceramics that appear to be post-Roman in a dark layer at the SE ... 1/

Here's a marked-up drone shot of the Roman building with SW at the top. Most of the parts revealed in the 2018 and 2019 digs are buried under this year's spoil heaps which show up in white. Roman features are shown in red. We still don't know the full extent of Room 1, 1/3

We are now in the process of organising the next Alderney excavation scheduled for May 2025. This will focus on the Iron Age settlement found in the last days of this year's dig. Anyone interested in taking part should contact Dr Phil de Jersey [email protected].

Our July Newsletter has just gone out to subscribers. If you would like to receive the newsletters, send an email to [email protected].

Later in the life of the Roman building at Les Mielles, changes were made to the exterior areas. A drystone wall was built to divide the courtyard on the SW, with the effect of giving access to separate yards from Room 1 and from Room 2. 1/

After the walls of Rooms 1 and 2 of the Roman building were in place, a courtyard was laid on the SW side. A bed of clay was laid down followed by two layers of slabs. Larger slabs were chosen for the upper layer and again could have functioned as 'stepping stones' in wet weather. 1/3

At some point after Room 3 of the Roman building was complete, possibly straight away, a pavement was laid on its NE side (closest to the modern road). A stretch of this was seen in 2019 running past the door of Room 2, but it wasn't clear at that time if this was a road, a courtyard or a path. 1/

Room 3 of the Roman building at Les Mielles was built against the SE wall of Room 2, without the walls being keyed in. It was 3.25m deep by 5.3m wide and probably had an internal door at the NW corner connecting it to Room 2. We have not found an external door, 1/

Room 2 was added to the SE wall of Room 1 using the same techniques but not following exactly the same lines. We have found three of its corners and it is not square. In 2019 we discovered a door on the NE side and possibly another to the SE. This year we found a gap in the wall 1/

Room 1 at the NW end of the range appears to be the earliest part of the building uncovered so far. The builders employed Alderney sandstone, often beach boulders roughly squared off. Bonding was of clay. We know the room was about 3.6m deep as we found its NE wall in 2019. 1/

After a couple of periods of something indistinct happening in the early parts of the Les Mielles site, buildings start to be constructed. Cleaner dark soil overlies the limpet layer. The Romans seem to have put down a scatter of stones as bedding. This will become Room 3.

Post-excavation is well under way. On the dig itself we start at the top down, digging backwards in time. Once we start putting the information together we work bottom-up to describe the way the site developed historically. Over the next few posts we'll be presenting evidence that way round. 1/

Channel Television were on the dig site today, so watch out for a piece on ITV news. Photo- a piece of late Roman Argonne ware cleaned today.

Day 22, and it's all over bar the planning. Here's the final drone shot from Alan Perks. On the left is Trench 3.5, showing the SE end of Room 3, its adjacent pavement and the waterlogged grounf beyond. To the right is Trench 3.4, with the NW side of Rooms 2 and 3, 1/2

Day 21 of the Roman excavation on Longis Common. Post-excavation is a critical part of any project and is how we make sense of the site. While the diggers are down in the trenches, volunteers are cleaning, sorting and identifying the finds. John, Dave & Mel in action.

And finally.. some interesting news from Le Huguettes. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cy2Jvh4HIVw&fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0vfpa6ZR9mP3zmtZwn6AkrU3G3LgN2VtbX7Z4yOd5GF0ra_PFQYOEYsCw_aem_AdlQ0nmpiDbVmqi6hEv9HWRb9seyZdJ87w7VcHID0wAtgXyJfZgNZgg3RVdX7klPyrT_Xzsjwh3wrOH-VYvbBU0C

Day 20. Andy is planning an early feature, while Jim checks the spoil heap for anything that eluded us. A line of stones mark some early features that predate the ground the building was constructed on. It lies below the water table which means we cannot investigate further. 1/2

Day 18/19 and the pace of work slows as we tease the evidence out of the site. Christine has perked off the clay floor of Room 2 to reveal what is underneath. 1/

Day 17 - the glamour of archaeology. Big shout out to States Works for the loan of a pump to deal with the ground water problem. And to our muddy diggers who have to clear a clean working area before we start. All this effort is revealing the most interesting selection of 1/

Video update on the conclusion of main excavation at les Huguettes. #Alderney #IronAge