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 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 .