Area H being trowelled back to make the edges of features clearer

Over the four day jubilee weekend, the wet weather has obviously had an effect on the site with many features that were already outlined becoming even more distinct against the white chalk. While the features are easier to see, it is important to just tidy the edges, defining the exact location of the feature in order to make the excavation process slightly easier. Today’s focus was to trowel back in Area H, the north part of the site, in order to start defining these features so that they can soon be allocated ‘feature numbers’, which is one of the methods employed to enable the recording of a site. As the soil retains the rainwater more, it appears darker than usual and although it can be quite difficult to trowel back it was in fact perfect weather conditions on the site today. This even enabled some second year supervisors to have a training session on the geophysical equipment, which Paul Cheetham has conducted and lead every year since the beginning of the dig. Geophysical survey is an essential technique used in archaeology combining magnetic, electromagnetic and electrical techniques in order to gain data about buried archaeology. Geophysical surveys are non-destructive methods of surveying what is underneath the ground without actually excavating, thus saving a significant amount of time. Back on site, the aim for the next few days is to continue defining the edges of the features before we can finally be allocated one for excavation.

Site overview day 4. Fully weeded and largely cleaned up, the next step is to start excavating thefeatures that have been identifed