Day 6 – Rims and the Working Hollow

Monday 16th June 2014

As today started off with glorious sunshine, it was bound to be a good but hot day! It started off by having the square feature in Trench 1 shovel-scraped in order to clearly identify any features that may lie within it. This was important to do before the site got too warm because once the sun starts to bake the soil it is difficult to define features within the chalk bedrock. Possible human bones were found within the pit located in the northern part of Trench 1, as well as more piece of Bronze Age pottery being found in the ditch enclosure.
In Trench 2 the cranium and mandible from one of the ditches is still being excavated under the supervision of Nivien Speith. The main ditch running through the trench appears to be full of domestic refuse, including a lot of burnt flint, charcoal, animal bone and sherds of pottery which include a nice rim of a Bronze Age vessel.
There were a few incidences on site with people becoming ill, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. Most students are recording their contexts and doing the section plans for their features, and then they will be moved onto new features.
Today was also the start of the Field School on the site. This is where paying members of the public come to the site to excavate and participate in any activities that they wish to do. We also had a visit from Martin Green and Maureen Putnam, who were both invited along to the site to help excavations. Maureen took part in the dig last year, so it was nice to be able to welcome her back.
Site Logistics Team: Darwin Culley and Rob Hellawell
Finds Team: Dominique Druce, Robin Dumbreck and Jessica Fangmann