Day 11: Monday 5th July

Weather: Chilly and windy.

Word of the Day: ceramics

Find of the Day: A large piece of waster pottery. (This means it is mis-shapen due to being mis-fired. Pictured below).

Here is the extra long piece of clay pipe found on friday by C.J.

Mauro using a dumpy level to measure the depth of the original 1970s trench that has been excavated from trench 16. By doing this, we can see how precise the 1970s plans of the site are. What we found yesterday was that actually the 70s trench doesn't match the original site plans.

Charlie's Beard looked a bit wind swept today. In other news, Charlie has been involved in the excavation of trench 15. In the 1970s, the layer of soil that we have reached was recorded as natural bedrock. It isn't. It is actually soil with evidence of burnt material in it.

A selection of pottery. If you look closely at the white fragment on the right you may be able to spy a small 's'. This is the makers mark.

Ceramics found over the course of the last few weeks were spread on large tables to be sorted. At the Manor Lodge Site there is a visitors centre which has lots of information on the history of the site. We are going to be putting a display cabinet in the centre, so are selecting artefacts which tell a story to display in the centre.

Charlotte: Finding pieces and fragments of pottery with interesting designs, patterns and pieces that fit together.

Introducing...

We've got an interview for you with young whipper snappers Ben and Nat, but first we thought we'd introduce them.

Name: Ben. BA Archaeology, Sheffield.

Likes: Mountain biking, fish and guitars.

Dislikes: Loud people and being called a geordie. (Ben is from Sunderland)

Favourite Songs: Maybe Tomorrow- The Stereophonics and Venus in Furs- The Velvet

Underground.

Ideal Dinner Party Guests: John Frusciante, Jimmy Page, Kim Jong II, Keith Richards and Roy Keen.

If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: The burial ground of the Qin Dynasty.

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

Name: Nathanael. BA Archaeology Student Sheffield.
Likes: drums, rock climbing and piano.
Dislikes: freshly cut grass due to his hay fever.
If you could be anyone for a day who would you be?: Prince Harry.
Favourite Song: Heart of Gold- Neil Young
If I could be involved in any archaeological excavation, I'd like to excavate: Easter Island.

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

Victoria: Why did you choose archaeology and what sparked that initial interest?

Ben: I've always liked archaeology, always been interested in finding stuff. I went to Binchester, and Durham university were doing some excavations there and they showed us around. There was part of a road they'd excavated, found some quite cool stuff, but they say it's bigger than stuff they've found at Hadrian's Wall, so if they had excavated that it would be bigger and better.
Nat: I did it at GCSE. Went on a dig in year 10 I think it was in Chirbury and it grew from there really.

Victoria: Indiana Jones or Tony Robinson?

Ben: Tony Robinson

Nat: He's more realistic.

Victoria: So you have both completed your first year of BA Archaeology. What aspect of the course have you most enjoyed?

Ben: European Civilizations with Jane Rempel, good lecturer.

Nat: I really enjoyed Origins. We had a lecturer Phil Pettitt, absolute legend, he's a really good lecturer. So I was kind of interested because of the lecturer. I really liked the pre-history and that aspect of it. And we studied world civilizations this semester which was fantastic.

Day Three: Wednesday 23rd June

We found out what animal the mystery jaw bone from yesterday belonged to. It was a COD.

Weather: Cool in the morning. Hot in the afternoon.

Word of the Day: Site Plan

Find of the Day: a Royal Marine button.


And today we had a Quote of the Day:

(Whilst discussing the new layer of soil that was being dug in trench 18).
Becky: At least theres another layer.
Danielle: There's layers right down to the core of the earth.

Today there was a lot of site planning going on. This is where you plot the features of the trench, the size and shape. In the photograph above, the long tape measure is the base line tape. The smaller tape is being used to measure the width at different points.

All information then has to be made 3D. This is so it can be overlayed onto maps for future reference and digs. This is a requirement for archiving a site. It is preservation by record.

To measure the site in 3D we use a 'Dumpy Level' and 'Staff'. You may recognise the 'Dumpy Level' because it is used for surveying.

This is the Find of the Day. It was found by Becky Hankinson who is studying a BA in Archaeology at Nottingham University. It is a small button with 'Royal Marines' embossed on it and a small crest or symbol. We think it is 19th century. We will let you know as soon as we do.

This was my personal find of the day. We named the snail 'Sampsom' and he became our mascot for a while. It was suggested that Cherubin should eat it. Escargot=Escar-gone.

This is Alvaro, a project officer from the Archaeological Research Services Limited, brushing off top soil for 18th century handmade bricks.



These are the 18th century handmade bricks, labelled and enjoying the sun.

The photogrpah above is of what looks like a grave stone. This is because the left corner is curved like that of a grave stone.

Here are Craig and Foggy getting to grips with doing a site plan of trench 15. Towards the end of the day a structure was discovered in the south of the trench.

We have a number of students from other universities than Sheffield. This is Kenneth 'Hutch' Gregory (left) and Cherubin Alcalen (right) who have both recently graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi where they studies Geographic Information Technologies.