Day 4
Posted by Cathy - 18:33 on 12 July 2011
Day 4 has been a great day...not least because it was our first day without any rain! A quick tour of the newly opened trench 2 and a practice context sheet later and we were ready to start trowelling.
Trench 1 was split in three areas A: the rectangle at the base of the mound, B the section down the side of the mound and C the rectangle at the top of the mound.
Over the course of the day the group in Area A had to mattock through a thick layer of claggy clayey silt to reveal the deposits underneath. The remains of an old horseshoe and some charcoal from this area were recorded. The charcoal is likely to have come from garden waste fires.
Area C had an easier time of it, trowelling back the surface of the upper mound to reveal several flat sided stones. it remains to be seen whether these are the result of a dump of stone clearance or form some sort of disturbed structure. Alpha got the star find of the day - a small piece of worked chert (similar to flint) that looks like a small scraper.
The team in Area B found the steep slope challenging and so steps were cut to avoid the hoeing team slipping down the edge of the mound. Once the area was cleaned it was left to dry out. The concentration of stones at the base of the slope has been cleaned back again, revealing some sizeable boulders - we will investigate this more tomorrow.
Samples were taken of all the contexts (layers) we have encountered so far and lots of mid-excavation photographs have been taken to chart the progress of our dig.
The total station coverage survey continues, points have now been taken across the top of the mound mapping the height differences across the top.
Eric was back on site again today to check the spoil heaps and the newly opened trench 2 for any metal finds, discovering a metal button near the base of the mound.
The forecast looks good for tomorrow so fingers crossed we can capitalise on our progress today and reveal more of the stone spreads that have started to appear today!
Your Comments
Add your comment below
- Recent Blog Articles
- ARCH Christmas displays
- Revelations from hidden Tain
- Final Day
- Day 13 - Backfill minus one!
- Day 12
- Monthly Blog Archive
- July 2011
- December 2009
Loved the blog but How do I get previous days info?
Sorry to say I can not now get to the open day on Sat as ( sorry ) I had not realised it clashed with something else.
Sheena Coyne Joan Stewart and K Burton offer apologies.
Well Done All and We hope the weather holds up for you.
Keep digging
Kt x