Day 10: A great British bake-off
Week 3 kicks off with some intense sun and some intense trowelling...
Indigo
Arriving on site and finding that the clayey soil has been baked hard by the sun can be a little disheartening; however with a little team effort the ground was soon being mattocked and prepared for trowelling. Jordy, Brad and I have been digging the same square for a about a week now, and although we are making good progress, we have had relatively few artefacts. Today, however, was the marking of a new era and a bounty of animal bone was found, along with a few sherds of pot, floor tile and slate roof tile. Maybe tomorrow we'll find a full skeleton!
Beth
Day 10 saw Laura and I continue our work in the westerly corner of trench. Brick after brick was revealed as I got going with my trowel. Laura on the other hand was pulling out some impressive animal bones - see above! When we first discovered the alignment of stone that makes up our feature, we thought it was perhaps a medieval oven, but the shape didn't quite fit. Now having exposed more of the feature, we are facing the possibility that we might have actually found a Roman structure! Stay tuned to find out! After lunch, my team headed off to the finds room in order to get our hands on some of the 'goodies' found on site. Once washed, the finds have to be marked with the site code and context number. We use fountain pens for this job, which is not as glamorous as it sounds - we were covered in ink afterwards! But the amount of cool finds we were able to get a closer look at was awesome!
Callum
Today was a sunny morning and this would set the tone for the rest of the day. The work today was hard going as my sun-baked feature was unable to break easily even with use of a mattock. Luckily Freya lent me a trowel which was sharper and could break through the material better and help me to tell the difference between soil and stone. This revealed that it was a possible pathway or paved surface. Although not the most exciting day, the group seemed to function well as more banter seemed to be happening!
Freya
This morning, we trudged onto the site with sunshine everywhere. While the majority of people were trowelling, myself and Jon instead finished off the plan of a section we had been working on, and took the levels for it. Lunchtime hit and the heat had notched up, so the need for water was vital. Once lunch was over everyone got back to their spots on site and we got back to trowelling. The heat was incredible and I felt sorry for poor Adam and so decided to help him out by emptying a bottle of water on him to cool him down, much to my amusement (not so much to his!). Therefore a water fight did start and within no time my water supply was gone, but all for a good cause. Before leaving we did our daily inspection of who looked the most tanned and who was covered in the most mud. With the help of my housemates, we came to the conclusion that Jordy has managed to do a pretty good job of bringing most of the site back with him. Overall it was a nice and productive day, however I am very happy snuggled in bed waiting out this thunder storm thanking the gods that it is happening now and not then!
Indigo
Arriving on site and finding that the clayey soil has been baked hard by the sun can be a little disheartening; however with a little team effort the ground was soon being mattocked and prepared for trowelling. Jordy, Brad and I have been digging the same square for a about a week now, and although we are making good progress, we have had relatively few artefacts. Today, however, was the marking of a new era and a bounty of animal bone was found, along with a few sherds of pot, floor tile and slate roof tile. Maybe tomorrow we'll find a full skeleton!
 |
| Laura gets the find of the day |
Beth
Day 10 saw Laura and I continue our work in the westerly corner of trench. Brick after brick was revealed as I got going with my trowel. Laura on the other hand was pulling out some impressive animal bones - see above! When we first discovered the alignment of stone that makes up our feature, we thought it was perhaps a medieval oven, but the shape didn't quite fit. Now having exposed more of the feature, we are facing the possibility that we might have actually found a Roman structure! Stay tuned to find out! After lunch, my team headed off to the finds room in order to get our hands on some of the 'goodies' found on site. Once washed, the finds have to be marked with the site code and context number. We use fountain pens for this job, which is not as glamorous as it sounds - we were covered in ink afterwards! But the amount of cool finds we were able to get a closer look at was awesome!
 |
| Shiny happy finds |
Callum
Today was a sunny morning and this would set the tone for the rest of the day. The work today was hard going as my sun-baked feature was unable to break easily even with use of a mattock. Luckily Freya lent me a trowel which was sharper and could break through the material better and help me to tell the difference between soil and stone. This revealed that it was a possible pathway or paved surface. Although not the most exciting day, the group seemed to function well as more banter seemed to be happening!
Freya
This morning, we trudged onto the site with sunshine everywhere. While the majority of people were trowelling, myself and Jon instead finished off the plan of a section we had been working on, and took the levels for it. Lunchtime hit and the heat had notched up, so the need for water was vital. Once lunch was over everyone got back to their spots on site and we got back to trowelling. The heat was incredible and I felt sorry for poor Adam and so decided to help him out by emptying a bottle of water on him to cool him down, much to my amusement (not so much to his!). Therefore a water fight did start and within no time my water supply was gone, but all for a good cause. Before leaving we did our daily inspection of who looked the most tanned and who was covered in the most mud. With the help of my housemates, we came to the conclusion that Jordy has managed to do a pretty good job of bringing most of the site back with him. Overall it was a nice and productive day, however I am very happy snuggled in bed waiting out this thunder storm thanking the gods that it is happening now and not then!
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