Monday 5 July 2010

The geotextile is off, we are digging in features!

The Northern Trench has been machined open tday as well and by Wednesday a team of students and volunteers will work with Dr Gill Hey of Oxford Archaeology to unravel the mysteries of the Neolithic cursus.

Meanwhile, Paul Booth, also of Oxford Archaeology, led his teams to a successful day hard work. We have removed the last of the coverings from the previous season, and the students and volunteers have now thoroughly cleaned the site. The features we began to notice last season are showing up very sharply in the dry soil, and in the bright sunlight. In spite of the heat, morale was high as we began to open up a series of intercutting pits that may date to the Late Roman or Early Saxon period.

The site produces loads of pottery sherds, mostly Roman, and loads of animal bone, mostly from pigs, cows and sheep, the result of domestic food processing. All this keeps the finds tent very busy as the students wash every single sherd no mater how small. Paul Booth's expertise in Roman pottery helps the potwashers realise the significance of what they are processing, as he explains where the pots came from and when they were at the peak of their distributions.

Tomorrow we will continue exploring the pit complexes and with luck even more features will be revealed. Watch this space!

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