Day 18th: Wednesday 14th July

Weather: Dull and grey

Word of the Day: Cellar

Find of the Day: A 18th/19th century cellar was found in trench 16. This brilliant find is pictured below. The camera was literally placed inside the opening to the cellar and 'take' was pressed with no idea as to what we were seeing.

A handle and a fragment of ceramic found in Trench 16. It has been suggested that this could maybe be dated back to the 17th century.

A stone floor in trench 16.


Students decided to make the act of filling up buckets of soil more enjoyable so started to make soil castles.

BreeAnn and Samantha have been collecting soil samples from trench 18 for environmental archeaology. The feature that they are collecting the samples from is thought to have been vegetation. Hedges could have potentially been planted here and this process will enable us to know exactly what was planted. Trench 15 will also be collecting soil samples to see if there is any correlation between the vegetation grown there with trench 18.

Charlie was on a research day today so we had to think of a way to represent Charlie's Beard. Toby Martin a PhD Archaeology student was Charlie's Beard model today. We managed to coax him into doing it with the promise of the fame.

Introducing...

Name: Charlotte. A MA Ancient Mediterranean Civilizations and Archaeology student from Edinburgh University.
Likes: Music, shopping and history.

Dislikes: Baked beans and snakes.
Favourite Songs: Johnny B Goode- Chuck Berry and Baker Street-Jerry Rafertty.
Ideal Dinner Party Guests: Nelson Mandela, Johnny Wilkinson, Robert Pattinson, Robert Plant and Julius Caesar.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Maritime. eg Mary Rose

http://www.maryrose.org/

Day Nine: Thursday 1st July

Weather: Drizzily and chilly.

Word of the Day: Context

Find of the Day: Ceramic game piece.

Today we also had a thursday afternoon lecture titled: English Heritage and Role of the Regional Science Advisors. The lecture was led by Yorkshire's Regional Science Advisor, Andy Hammon.

The ceramic game piece.


Spot the context: Trench 16.

This is a photograph of students using a system of water flotation. This process is a feature of Environmental Archaeology. A tank is filled with water. At the bottom of this is a number of pipes which pump the water around so there is a continuous flow. These process pushes floating material to the surface which can be collected to give an indication of the landscape, plants, what crops where grown in the area etc. It provides extra information outside of the artefacts.

Here is work experience student Will, digging for the first time.

Lily recording contexts from Trench 16.

Hutch with what was collected from the surface of the water flotation tank.

Charlie's Beard is back and still doesn't look much different.

Introducing...

Name: Lauren, site supervisor.

Likes: Strong Tea, Heavy Metal and Osteology.

Dislikes: Spiders, and the color pink.

Greatest Moment: Lauren has just finished writing up a cemetary excavation report.

Favourite Film: The Wicker Man with Christopher Lee.

Favourite Song: Days of the Phoenix-A.F.I
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: The Spitalfields crypt in London.

http://www.spitalfields.co.uk/about_archeology.php

Name: Rebecca. BA Archaeology, Nottingham University.

Likes: Cake, reading and Christmas.

Dislikes: Asda, N-Dubz, and Waking up at 5am.
Favourite Films: Die Hard series.
Greatest Moment: Winning a face pulling competition at the age of 5.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like excavate: The Mary Rose

http://www.maryrose.org/

Name: Danielle. BA Archaeology Sheffield.
Likes: Mashes potato, swimming, travelling and jewelley.
Dislikes: Clay pipes, un-cleanliness and B*Witched
If you could be anyone for a day, who would you be?: Wonderwoman.

Favourite Film: E.T.

I can't live without: Soap
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Turin Shroud.

http://www.shroud.com/

Name: Susan. BA Archaeology Sheffield.
Likes: Reading and Holidays.
Dislikes: Sausages.
Best Holiday: Machu Picchu, Peru.
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: An unknown tomb in Egypt.