Day 28: Wednesday 28th July

Weather: Grey.

Word of the day: Drain pipe

Find of the day: The rest of the drain pipe and where it leads. ( Pictured below)

You can see the rest of the drain pipe pictured above. This is the Victorian drainage system from the houses here at the Manor during the 18th/19th century.



This is what we thought was a cellar, but it seems that the pipe is actually leading down into it. Could this actually be where waste was stored? This photograph was taken from the pipe side of the pit.

Lily and Cherubin chasing a pipe dream!

This is the makers mark discovered on friday and breifly written about yesterday. We were sent some brilliant information from Chris Cumberpatch about it. Thankyou Chris. The mark is infact that of the Don Pottery and is dated to the period of the Barker family (1839-1893). It shows 'a circular garter enclosing enclosing a demi-lion holding a plain pennon'. This mark is often accompanied by the initials S.B & S (Samuel Barker & Sons) and is usually found at the bottom of the mark. This pottery comes from Swinton and Mexborough and founded by John Green in 1801. Don Pottery is not uncommon on sites in Sheffield. A large quantity was found on a site in Upper Allen Street. As well as local markets, the pottery had an extensive trade via Hull. For more information, there is a book available at Doncaster Museum by John Griffin about this pottery.

Hutch doing some shovelling and general cleaning up of his section of trench 16 so it is ready for photographs.

Hutch, The King of the spoil heap.

A roof tile that was covering the drain pipe.

Today in trench 18 it was all girls. We renamed it Team G/Trench G. Here are the lovely ladies. Eleanor, Katie, Philppa, Kate and Charlotte.

Charlie has left site. There is no Charlie's Beard today (we forgot) so expect 2 tomorrow. Apologies.

Introducing...

Name: Carrie. Ba Classical and Historical Archaeology.
Likes: Foreign foods and the cinema.

Dislikes: Digging in the rain, spiders and being late.

Favourite Films: Inception, The Mummy films, and The Lady and the Tramp.

Favourite 3 course meal: Nachos for starters, Lamb Rogan Josh for main with all the trimmings and for desert some Ben and Jerry's ice cream.
If I could be involved in any archaeological dig, I'd like to excavate: Mesoamerica.

http://www.theancientweb.com/explore/content.aspx?content_id=19

Day 27: Tuesday 27th July

Weather: Grey, chilly but luckily the rain held off.

Word of the day: Soil heap.

Find of the day: A clay pipe bowl with a skull on it. (Pictured below)

On friday's blog we posted a picture of this, a makers mark. We have since found the other half. It is not actually a dog and flag but a lion. We will give you some more information on this tomorrow.

In trench 16 they have discovered a large number of Saggars. You can spot them in the photograph above poping out of the soil. (They are a sort of red/brown colour).

Margret was one of the community volunteers from last week and she enjoyed herself so much that she came back for the day to really get stuck in with the digging. She spent her day working with Carrie, Charlie, and Rachel in Trench 15, mattocking and shovelling down to bedrock.

Cherubin has been busy trying to find the rest of the victorian pipe discovered in trench 16 two weeks ago. He has had his work cut out. There is lots of clay in the soil in this particular part of trench 16.

This is the waste pot found in trench 15 that the school children from yesterday were very interested in. It is like a ceramic bin. Lots of pieces of glass were found in the ruins of the pot. Maybe this is an early version of recycling?

Rachel and Charlie matttocking in trench 15.

Like clay pipe, we have found loads of animal teeth. Today we found part of a cow's jaw in trench 18 with teeth still attached.

Charlie's Beard. Still looks patchy. Charlie has now left site for greener pastures (aka a holiday). So to say goodbye we threw him in the soil heap. Charlie's Beard will still be a feature here though.

Introducing...

Name: Eleanor. Has just finished her AS-levels and is planning to apply to study Archaeology at University. She is here to see if she actually likes it.

Likes: Chocolate, romcoms and swimming.

Dislikes: Spiders, snakes and too much exercise.

Favourite films: The Notebook, There's Something About Mary, and The Hangover.

I can't live without: My Mobile Phone

Weird Fact: Eleanor can touch her nose wirh her tongue.

If I could be involved in any Archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: The Necropolis underneath the Vatican.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Necropolis

Day 24: Thursday 22nd July

We would like to say a big congratulations to Charlotte (our tea lady), who today graduated and didn't trip over. We would also like to say a massive congratulations to Lauren who is now engaged.

Weather: Grey with rain.

Word of the day: Sondage.

Find of the day: A teadrop shaped game piece. (Pictured below).

Philippa and Charlotte trowelling a feature.

Tom and Buttery Jonathan spent a large percentage of the afternoon in the finds basement. Tom was doing site plans and Buttery was matching the photo numbers with all 77 context sheets. Good job he likes paper work.

The word of the day is Sondage. In the most basic of translations, this means: 'digging a small hole'. Above, Charlie is digging a sondage and below is the sondage that the blogger dug. Tom popped over to trench 15 to see what had been going on and Charlie said: 'This is a sondage dug by an archaeologist (pointing at his hole), and that is the sondage dug by the blogger which makes the archaeologists look rubbish.' Thanks Charlie. Turns out the blogger (who studies English Language and Linguistics is a natural archaeologist).

The small skeleton of a chicken has been discovered. There is much debate over what the find should be named. Piri piri was suggested aswell as Mr or Mrs Tweedy. Above, Katie is photographing the find.

Kanani and Chris checking site plans.

Charlie's Beard. No different. May have to start doing a site plan of it so we can tell the difference.


Introducing...

Name: Caitlin. Ba Classical and Historical Archaeology.
Likes: Formula 1, reading and drinking.
Dislikes: Spiders and chickens.
Favourite Book: The Aenid by Virgil.
Greatest Adventure: Canooing in Scotland with with the Duke of Edinburgh Award.
If I could be anyone for a day, I'd like to be: The Queen.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Mexico.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico

Name: Rachel. BSc Archaeological Science.
Likes: Pigs, football and music.
Dislikes: Snakes and ventrilliquist dolls.
Desert Island Discs: (6 Songs) At Atlantic City-Bruce Springsteen, This Charming Man- The Smiths, Can't Stand me Now-The Libertines, Mr Tambourine Man- Bob Dylan, Boys Don't Cry- The Cure, and Rock and Roll Queen-The Subways. (Book) Into the world by John Crakaur. (Guilty pleasure) A spice rack. (Rachel likes spicy food).
Favourite place in the world: The Lake District
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Stonehenge.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_henge

Day 23: Wednesday 21st July

We'd firstly like to wish a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Lauren.

Weather: Warm.

Word of the day: Buckets and finds train.

Find of the day: Large pieces of blue and white pottery. (Pictured below)

Above are students filling out a context sheet.

Both wednesday last week and wednesday this week we have had a number of community volunteers on site. This project is giving them an introduction to archaeology. They are invited to dig, trowell, sieve for finds and clean the finds. Above are two community volunteers searching for finds in the soil heaps.

The material culture students were doing finds processing today. They also had an informal session outside in the sun led by Alvaro, about the excavation and treatment of Organic Materials. All the students were intently listening and afterwards commented on how interesting the talk was.

Becky and Cherubin learning about Organic Materials.

Charlie's Beard was mostly made of metal today.

Introducing...

Name: Cherubin. Recently graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi where he studied Geographic Information Systems.
Likes: Cars, shiny things and Corporation.
Dislikes: Avril Lavigne, mean people and politicians.
Ideal Dinner Party guests: Buddha, Jesus, Mohammed, Dennis Rodman, Henry VIII and Seth McFarlan.
If I could be anyone for a day, i'd like to be: James Bond
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: The Temple of David underneath the Dome of Rock.

http://graal.co.uk/houseofdavid.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock

Weather: Still can't make up it's mind. Hot, cold, rainy.

Word of the day: Material Culture

Find of the Day: A pair of copper alloy pins. (Below)

A few weeks ago we found a piece of pottery with a pair of feet on it and some horses legs. This piece pictured above is from the same piece of pottery. Unfortunately they don't quite fit together. Theer is a tiny piece missing from the puzzle.

This glazed number is what is known as Manorware and there are huge amounts of it because it was produced here in the 18th/19th century.

A new field school were on site today. This field school is called Material Culture.

http://www.shef.ac.uk/archaeology/field-schools/manor-lodge-mc.html

Hutch sorting a finds tray.

In trench 16, students were digging out a new feature. Further down a large hole was discovered. A post may have been in this hole at some point.

Site planning is still going on. Above Charlotte is recording stone by stone in a feature in trench 18.

Blake trowelling trench 17.

Charlie's Beard looked rather wind swept today.

Introducing...

Name: Katie. BSc Archaeology, Sheffield.
Likes: Holidays in the sun, lasagne and dogs.
Dislikes: Spiders and her brother.
Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be: Blondie
Greatest Moment: An expedition to Bolivia.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd Like to excavate: East Smithfields Black Death Cemetary.

.org.uk/English/Collections/OnlineResources/CHB/Database/Medieval+cemeteries/ESmithfieldBlackDeath.htm

Name: Philippa. BA History and Archaeology, Newcastle University.
Likes: Latin American and ballroom dancing, Mohitos and rugby men.

Dislikes: Creepy crawlies, blood, injections and plasters.
Favourite Film: Dirty Dancing.

Desert Island Discs: Spice Up Your Life-The Spice Girls, 9 to 5- Dolly Parton, Purple Rain-Prince, Boys of Summer-Dj Sammy, Livin La Vida Loca- Ricky Martin and Wonderwall-Oasis. Ray Mear's Surivival Guide and Alfie the Teddy Bear.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: MV Cita

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Cita

Day 21: Monday 20th July

Weather: Hot and sunny

Word of the day: Penguins and Sharks.

Quote of the day: Whilst reading the joke from the back of a Penguin chocolate bar:
Charlie: I'm disappointed with this joke.
Victoria: I'm disappointed with life.

Find of the day: This large piece of worked bone from the handle of a knife. (Below)

After the rain of the weekend, Tom was trowelling back in trench 17 to see the features once again.

Katie a BSc Archaeology student from Sheffield and Philippa a Ba History and Archaeology student from Newcastle were digging out the second vegetation feature in trench 18.

Skulls from Bawtry.

You may have read about the field school taking place at Bawtry Cemetary last week. If you are an avid follower of Charlie's Beard you will know that Charlie kept disappearing to medieval burial ground. Above is one of the skulls found. Charlotte is carefully cleaning the female medieval skull so it can then be sent for professional analysis.

Buttery Jonathan is still busy site planning. Above is the start of his site plan of trench 16.

Charlie's Beard. Still no different.

Introducing...

Name: Charlotte. A Ba Classical and Historical Arcaheology student.
Likes: Festivals, cooking and The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold.
Dislikes: football post world cup, and moths.
Best Moment at the Festival: Leeds 2008 when Rage Against the Machine played Killing in the Name of.
Tonight Matthew, I'm going to be: Elton John.
If I could be involved in any archeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Something Holocaust related like Auschwitz.

http://en.auschwitz.org.pl/m/

Name: Gregg. Ba Arcaheology.
Likes: Football, table tennis, drinking and fashion.
Dislikes: fishing, golf and markets.
Ideal Dinner Party Guests: Eva Mendes, Stevie Wonder, Alan Carr, Denzel Washinton and Alvaro.
If I was a Simpsons character and could only wear on outfit I'd wear: Slim jeans, a plain t-shirt, a cardigan and All Saints boots.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Machu Picchu.

http://www.sacredsites.com/americas/peru/machu_picchu.html