New excavations Ter Apel monastery: ‘This is very exciting work’

Presumably two outbuildings were attached to the monastery of Ter Apel. RUG archeology students are uncovering the foundations shovel by shovel.

Fred Hummel is up to his navel in a pit. He spent all day on his knees excavating bricks layer by layer, dusting them off and documenting his findings. “I think it’s beautiful and very exciting work. You never know what you’re going to find,” he says RTV North.

The first-year student has already found glass, old pipes and medieval nails among the stones and sand. No remains yet that constitute watertight evidence of earlier use of the foundations.

Nevertheless, associate professor Stijn Arnoldussen is reasonably certain that the foundations that Hummel is investigating are part of an old dining room or kitchen that must have been attached to the monastery. “We are looking for remnants of cooking utensils or cooking pots, which could point us in the direction of a kitchen.”

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