2011

Daily news and discoveries from the 2011 field school

The Big Dig – Day 6: Visions of a Roman way of life

At the end of the first week on site, the wealth of finds and features already unearthed is incredible. From flint tools to high status Roman pottery, the freshers are certainly gaining great excavation experience from this site. With few new special finds today, the highlight was the site overview by Miles Russell, detailing the results of… Read more » about The Big Dig – Day 6: Visions of a Roman way of life

The Big Dig – Day 5: Dark clouds loomed – but luckily they swirled passed without soaking the site with bucketfuls of rain.

Today excavation continued apace, with first years defining and excavating half or quadrant sections of their allocated features.  Some first years had shallow pits or ditches that allowed them the opportunity to get first hand experience in completing section drawings of their features, interpreting and recording the stratigraphy. The second years further assisted first years… Read more » about The Big Dig – Day 5: Dark clouds loomed – but luckily they swirled passed without soaking the site with bucketfuls of rain.

The Big Dig – Day 4: Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!

Today the sunny but windy site was filled with enthusiasm and excitement amongst the budding archaeologists who had eagerly been awaiting the opportunity to begin excavating features that they had uncovered. Across the site, people have been busy completing the pre-excavating plans in order to record features prior to their excavation. The majority of newly discovered features… Read more » about The Big Dig – Day 4: Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together!

The Big Dig – Day 2: The mystery of the disappearing ‘banjo’ ditch

Today we continued to clean back the concealing layers of soil that were obscuring the archaeological features that lay beneath. This revealed that the position of part the ‘banjo’ enclosure ditch was possibly not as expected. The day began with the workforce being divided into year groups. The first years had a challenging day, having to… Read more » about The Big Dig – Day 2: The mystery of the disappearing ‘banjo’ ditch