Day 6 - Bert the squirrel

Lyndsay manages to write an update even after mattocking most of the day -
Today was an eventful day. In the morning we were sent down to remove a plinth of soil that stuck out like a sore thumb before having group B’s first photography session.
Here we learnt about the zoom, focus and how these cameras are so much better than mine, which is broken and sitting in my wardrobe somewhere. It was then explained that there are two types of photography used in archaeology: the commercial and the academic shots. Commercial shots are all the awe-inspiring elemental shots on front covers and for those of us working hard on things such as newspapers and blogs!! But as we were focusing on the academic side, our shots were for recording purposes. We looked through the camera eye piece to frame the final photo, we added scales and important information on a photo board, such as the site reference, trench number and a north arrow. All in all this was a really good experience and I wish we could have seen the pictures, but the laptop decided to play up and refused to let us see them!
In the afternoon we were excavating again, but this time we were taking a context off and setting up a section so that we’ll be able to draw it eventually. This was exhausting, but well worth it. We found tons of slate and brick using the mattock and rotated so that our arms didn’t drop off! Soon though Andrew finished drawing and the boys came back from finds cleaning and with their help we managed to get the top layer off, so tomorrow we’ll hopefully be able to see if there’s anything interesting (or sinister) underneath the building rubble!
During the afternoon break, Mark’s friend Bert the squirrel came to look for him, but he’d disappeared. But don’t worry Mark! Heidi fed him her fruit flakes before bullying Andrew into giving him the last of his afternoon snacks!