Day 25: Friday 23rd July

Weather: Sunny and chilly.

Word of the day: MATTOCK

Find of the day: The stone from a ring. (pictured below)

Above is a fragment of pottery. On the front is an elaborate pattern and on the backside (pictured) is the makers mark. If you look carefully you will be able to spot a dog and flag.


Students taking part in the material cultures field school spent the afternoon learning about lithics and deciding how to arrange the artefacts found in the display cabinet. Above is the top shelf which has been used to display the large number of interesting and diverse game pieces we have found.

The lithics talk this afternoon for material culture students was held outside. Above are arrowheads and below are blades.

Alvaro teaching the students.

In trench 17 there was a real sense of teamwork. It was incredibly busy. Mattocking, shovelling, wheel barrowing. Everyone was busy.

Charlie's Beard and the Charlie's Beard shovel. Can you spot the difference?

The blogger took to the trench to do some serious mattocking. It proved to be the best stress relief.

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 15: Friday 9th July

Weather: Very hot and sunny.

Word of the day: Ear ring

Find of the day: A post medieval ear ring, possibly 16th Century found in Trench 17. (Pictured below)
During the 18th century small terraced houses were built on the site. Above is a photograph of the a Victorian drainage pipe, part of the drainage system discovered in Trench 16.

Kiln made of clay and straw for experimental iron smelting which is taking part at the weekend.

Part of a metal bucket found and lifted from Trench 15.

Pieces of knife bone handle found in Trench 17. 18th/19th century.

The largest tooth found so far. This tooth is absolutely gigantic and attached to a piece of jaw.

17th Century pottery found.

A small game cube found by Charlotte.

Today we had a talk given by Alvaro about the finds so far. This was a great opportunity for students to see things that they had found, cleaned and sorted. It was also a good chance for students to take pictures for their future coursework assignments.

Above are both of the cube game piece found.

Charlie's Beard is till growing strong. A ceremonial beard shaving has been proposed for the last day of the dig.

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.

Day Two: Tuesday 22nd June

Another great day on site. Lots of interesting finds, beautiful weather and buckets of soil. We have removed much of the topsoil and are now down to the subsoil.

Weather: Hot and sunny

Word of the Day: Subsoil

Find of the day: A mysterious jaw bone was discovered. It is from either a bird or animal but is as of yet un-identified. Check back tomorrow for pictures and hopefully the mystery animal will be identified.

Here are some more finds from the second day of the excavation:

A box of ceramic fragments from trench 17.

Saggar fragments uncovered in trench 15. Saggars are fireclay containers made from tough clay which supported and protected the ware from flames, ashes, smoke and kiln gases during the first firing in the kilns. The term 'Saggar' comes from 'Safeguard, refelecting its function. 18th-19th Century.

Pieces of clay pipe.

Pieces of decorated clay pipe from trench 15. One fragment features the name 'William Wild'.

A round game piece discovered in trench 17.

Fragments of blue and white ceramic. 2 of the fragments fit together. These were found by Charlie Hay who is an Masters Archaeology student .