Tuesday 17th June 2014
Luckily the animal bone specialist, Mark Maltby, was in site today, as some animal bone was found from the pit in the northern corner of Trench 1, which he was able to confirm that it was wild boar.
A huge amount of domestic refuse is being excavated from the Roman working hollow in Trench 2, mainly being dug by students Michael Osborn and Ceri James. The human skull uncovered from the Bronze Age ditch in Trench 2 was also removed today as we had a visit from the osteologists to the site. They were able to supervise and advise the first year students on how to properly excavate and remove the skull to minimise damage and the risk of it falling apart. It remained remarkably intact after its removal.
Today was also the day that we were able to start the geophysical surveys and get the flotation tank running for the environmental samples. The geophysics is run by final year student Dominique Hopton, and the environmental activity is run by second year students Vanni Bartolini and James Ward-Gwilliam. These are both activities that the first years have to partake in, and they are activities that are a vital part of any excavation. Geophysical surveys can help us to determine if there are any features under the ground. It can’t tell us what the features are or if they are man-made or natural, but they can help us to locate a potential future site to excavate. Flotation is also very important because it helps to find any organic components from the context of a feature. By using a flotation tank, organic components such as seeds, charcoal, bone, insect etc float to the surface of the tank and can provide a huge amount of information about the context and what was in it.
Site Logistics Team: Dominique Druce, Robin Dumbreck
Finds Team: Laura Germain, Laura Grace, Io Gray-Davies
Geophysics Team: Darwin Culley, Emily Dowden, Becca Bowran