A Diggers Day No.8-9

Most archaeologists will work in weather and conditions that many people would shy away from. But today, with driving rain and biting cold even we had to admit that it was best to just give up. With frozen fingers and feet we trugged back to the hut. But even here we are only marginally better off. We have to squeeze into a space fit for hamsters, with the floors and walls covered in mud, as we have no where to divest ourselves of wet and dirty outer clothes. Meanwhile, even before the building site workers have arrived, three huge huts are onsite, one being a canteen which has yet to be connected to the electric. Only in our last week will we be able to get decent facilities to share.

Meanwhile I have finished off the terminus and am now working on the area where the enclosure turns from E/W to N/S. It looks as if the primary ditch only exists on the N/S axis. Only digging will answer that question.

A Diggers Day No.7

My day started with small swimming pools:

But in this case I had to empty them, and that took a bucket and sponge, bearing in mind that the temperature was c.2 degrees. My poor hands.

The rest of the day was taken up with digging the terminal to the enclosure ditch:

Just as we were packing up I came across another 'lug' piece of pottery. As you can see the ditch is quite visible, a dark fill surrounded by the orange clay. Over the rest of the site finds have been hard to come by.

One good event took place: the canteen has arrived. No more squeezing into the tiny hut, with at least two people having to stand. Hot soup for lunch tomorrow!

A Diggers Day No.6

Yesterday was no day for photos. Dank, dark, wet and very muddy, which makes every task twice as hard and long to do.

I finished off the second section through the enclosure ditch and established the primary terminus. Just two pieces of pottery this time and only small fragments at that. Next are two postholes that may be part of the whole structure - although two postholes do not a palisade make.

Covered from head to toe in clay, so took time to go through the paperwork, but the site hut is as muddy as the site itself! We are looking forward to the bigger canteen this coming week.

Some of the others are working today - and it is raining. They probably won't get much done in these conditions. We all hope that it dries up next week, but this is the west country after all. I spending a day off to wash all my things before returning to the fray tomorrow.  

A Diggers Day No. 4-5

Yesterday I finished off the section through the enclosure ditch:

This is a better picture, and as you can see there are lots of flint at the base of the secondary ditch cut. Archaeology is not all treasure, you know.

I then moved on to another section, this time to establish the butt-end of the primary ditch. The fill of the secondary ditch was richer in pot and this nice BBW base came up:

But better was to come. After taking more soil out I came across this:

This is a piece off the side of a pot which was hung over the fire, hence the 'lug' seen here in situ. It does look like someone has been buried with only their nose showing! This was post-ex:

This section of ditch yielded quite a few bags of pot, both BBW and a red ware that was quite poorly fired. A good haul:

The only down side at the moment is the small site hut. If the generator is not working I have to go for a pee in the dark. One has to trust to a good aim. However, we are due a site workers canteen next week - luxury! Hot lunches and fresh coffee too.

Working tomorrow, but on time and a half - hooray!

A Diggers Day No.3

A better day weather wise, but still very windy. As the rain/sleet/snow held off the ground is drying and easier to work, plus I am not several centimeters taller every time I come off site!

I have finished digging the section through the enclosure ditch and found this nice translucent flint:

Not a great pic but my hands were cold. It is very thin and has a nice cutting edge.

This is the section through the ditch, in very strong sunlight, so again not too good. I found that the ditch is in fact two; the first wider and then a second one cut through the middle of the earlier feature. A small posthole can be seen to the left.

We had two deer scamper across the next field today. Two young males with furry antlers. I wouldn't have seen that in London!

A Diggers Day No.2

When I moved to Dorset I was told that it never snowed here. Five out of six years it has snowed, and this year it has snowed again. On site today we had sleet, snow and blue sky's, all within a few minutes.

People used to say to me "archaeologists; you only work during the summer". This is how we have to work at in February:

But I had a consolation. I am working on the enclosure ditch and within a few strikes of a mattock I found this:

Some sherds of Black Burnished Ware (BBW). This is a slot through the ditch:

So, although the weather was changeable some nice bits of 2,000 year old pottery can brighten the day.

A Diggers Day No.1

It is a truth universally acknowledged that were you find a digger you find 3-4 people standing looking at it. 

I started at the site today, and a windy one it is. It myst have been blowing 50-60 miles per hour. As with most sites we had to wait for the digger to turn up, so we had a look at the work done so far. The site had been stripped previously and produced some standard features as can be seen on the map posted previously. So we had to remove the protective covering and soil first. Once we had uncovered the site we could begin to clean back by troweling.

This is one of the postholes of the roundhouse and luckily the fill is dark and the surrounding natural is a nice orange/yellow clay with flints. Nice and clear!

We found some unstrat pottery straight away. A nice base from a Romano-British small dish. Once we have cleaned back we can start to see what needs to be done.

Not a bad start and the view is quite good too!