Community Excavation Team Investigates Derry Walls

DERRY, NORTHERN IRELAND—According to a report in the Derry Journal, an excavation at the seventeenth-century city walls surrounding the city of Derry uncovered eighteenth-century cobbled road surfaces, masonry, pottery, coins, pipes, buttons, marbles, and a religious medal. “Although the excavation finished before reaching the level of the extra-mural ditch that once surrounded the seventeenth-century city walls, artifacts from the period—seventeenth-century English pottery from North Devon and Staffordshire and a led musket ball—suggest that this important feature remains preserved safely under the ground for future archaeologists to investigate,” said Ruairí Ó Baoill of the Centre for Community Archaeology. Volunteers and school children assisted Ó Baoill and his team during the project. For more on archaeology in the region, go to "Saving Northern Ireland's Noble Bog."