Today began excitingly with the discovery of two very well preserved brooches from pits in area C. The first was Iron Age, classified as a ‘ La Tène’ brooch, and was followed by the Roman brooch in another nearby pit. Each has been cleaned, and due to their excellent condition it is possible to see the fine details of each of them.
To the relief of the excavators, a pit filled entirely with clean chalk has been bottomed which has revealed some interesting finds. These include black burnish ware pottery, worked flint, an animal jaw, and a circular artefact with a hole in the centre. Why the 1.60 metre deep pit was filled with chalk in this way is unclear, but maybe the finds will help to provide some explanations.
Area ‘B’ contains an area of intercutting pits, which suggests that this was a place of importance as people have repeatedly returned to this particular spot to lay their deposits. Today, a number of pots are being excavated here, but the excavators are yet to discover if there are any finds of interest deposited at the bottom of this intriguing area of pits.
The environmental and finds specialists on-site continue their hard work, processing the samples and finds from the excavation. Damian Evans has taken on the painstaking job of gluing the pieces of pot recovered back together, to aid the classification of the pots to help with dating.
Hopefully the remaining days will be just as productive as today!
Lauren and Zoe
Day 20: Clockwise - recontructing pots, puzzling over a find, the two well preseved brooches, and an array of pots within a pit fill