This morning the site briefing was omitted in order to promptly start the progress of the excavation. The students immediately carried on their investigation of their features and the student who had successfully excavated and helped to lift the nearly full pot found in Trench A was instructed on how to carry out its processing. The contents were first emptied and bagged separately, in order to prepare them for geochemical and phytolith analysis, which would be conducted separately, at the lab.
Once the pot had been delicately cleaned with cool water and a soft toothbrush, its beautiful nature was revealed, depicting decorations around the rim, perforations at the base as well as possible burnishing of the material. The inspection of the incisions at the base of the ceramic revealed that it must have been perforated after firing, which is extremely difficult as the clay is very prone to shattering when cut. The careful perforation of the base, coupled with the decoration of the rim suggests that the entire ceramic would have served a domestic and a very aesthetic purpose. Substances resembling calcium carbonate residue also suggest that it may have been utilised for holding water, meaning that it had to be coated with hydrophobic matter. Moreover, the way in which the soil with possible compost matter was found still intact within the pot suggests that it was placed in the ground with extreme care, preventing the contents from slipping out. The results of the phytolith analysis will reveal whether plant matter is still present inside and this may shed light on the questions surrounding the use of the pot: did it have plants inside? Was it perhaps an offering to a God of the Underworld, given its careful placement?
Lastly, the curved nature of the decorations found around the rim of the ceramic suggest that it was not derived locally and suggests evidence of trading and importing of material into the past settlement. Similar pots had been found within previous seasons of the excavation, also placed in an extremely similar fashion, inferring a deep ritual behaviour regarding the compost components.
the level of preparation of the material components of the ceramic itself, along with other ceramic sherds found on site, in conjunction with deposits of cow, sheep and horse remains all support the Iron Age origin of the site.
In addition, disarticulated, very weathered and disturbed remains were found, suspected to be human. However, due to their disintegrated nature, they were not considered to be significant within their context.
During the first break, the trenches were both immaculately recovered and all tools were removed for the purpose of utilisation of DJI’s Phantom 3 Professional; the newly launched, first professional unmanned aerial system. The new model features the combination of 4K video capability at 30 frames per second with 12 megapixel resolution, allowing crystal-clear aerial photographs of the site.
Aerial photography had been used within archaeology for many years, pioneered during the World Wars, when aircrafts with monitoring equipment passed over landmarks. The main advantage of aerial photography is such that it offers the unique perspective of a bird’s eye view of a site or a particular feature, also allowing the placement of each of the features in their wider context, in a much more visible manner.
While many machines such as combat aircraft and hot air balloons have been used for aerial photography throughout the decades, unmanned aerial systems have also played an extremely important role within the development of the discipline. Models such as the Phantom 3 Professional are much lighter, smaller and cheaper than the standard aircrafts and they can be used safely without as much training, yet still enable the production of oblique as well as vertical photographs of the site.
Furthermore, unmanned aerial systems compose a geographically orientated image as they can detect targets placed on land, which are mapped using GPS systems, prior to the take off of the machine.
Further specific information about the Phantom 3 Professional can be found on the DJI website, at: http://www.dji.com/product/phantom-3/professional-camera