Archaeology

Well, today was the last day and all digging was completed and all that was left was the sad and backbreaking task of backfilling the trenches . Valerie made it to site today and Rod gave a talk on the history of the site and I hope to answer many of the burning questions (ie, Why did they build a castle there? Was it a castle or a manor house? When was it built? Who lived there? etc etc) in my round up post!

The last job - some last minute section drawing in Trench 2

Trench 1 backfilling - 2 hours later, it's done!


Trench 2 backfilling - they've got an extra 3 tonnes to put back in.

Nothing more to say for the moment - a very sad day indeed, but we may be back for a second season - who knows? I'll be doing a round-up post some time next week when I've got all my information. In the meantime - here's some final words from the Olivers Mound Dig, which wouldn't have happened if it were not for many main driving forces: the Shrawley & District Local History Society, and all the effort that Valerie and Rod put in to get it going, the Heritage Lottery Fund for seeing the potential of the site and putting up the cash, Archaeological Investigations for their valuable geophysics and earthwork survey of the site (and the provision of Dale!), AOC Archaeology (Chris) for directing and overseeing the professionalsim of the dig, the Earth Heritage Trust for providing an insight to the geology of the area, the Forestry Commission, who have helped enormously with access and a promise to keep the mound clear and last but not least, it couldn't have happened without a great team of volunteers, a great bunch of people, the hard work and dedication without which this dig would not have been the success that it was. A round of applause I think. So here are a few final photo moments from the last day on site:

Valerie on site inspecting the findings.


Hazel posing for a photo in the HLF T shirt.


Team from Trench 1 - Tina, Terry, me and Hazel

 
The main team on the last day (Chris taking the photo).
Back: Paul, Dave, Tina, Terry, Rod and Clare
Front: Hazel, me, Rollo and Dale

A final thank you to all those volunteers who came and helped out, from picking up a trowel and a shovel, to washing some finds:

Chris C (AOC)
Dale (Arch Investigations)
Clare (won the prize for best digger of the dig )
Dave (prizewinner for find of the dig with some nice green glazed roof tile)
Vicky
Hazel
Paul
Rod (Treasurer of the Society)
Rollo
Tina
Carol
Clare's Mum
Jenny
Neil
Simon (GPS - Arch Investigations)
And Sam!
Oh, and me. Back to sitting in an office on Monday. Probably best to let my muscles recover for a few days 

Hello!

Indy and Mutt come on site to take a look at Trench 1 - 'yep - definetely some early Medieval walls in there.' Yes!

Now. Moving on. Well, this was quite a sad day in that it was the last day of digging, Friday being the 'clear up and backfill' day. In Trench 1, we did a preliminary clean of the trench for the photos, exposing the possible two phases of walling (a tower and a curtain wall?)  - Masterman was clearly wall chasing and we are grateful he left them in.

The final Trench 1 photo - possibly two phases of an east/west (left/right) tower wall - is the square area below that a buttress?

The west-facing section of Trench 1

Trench 2 was in much the same position, although the final 1m extra slot was being taken out and a small pebbled surface was exposed in the north side and then a few dressed stones were found.

The pebbled surface to the north of the extension to Trench 2.


The final Trench 2 shot.

The EDM was taken out so that Hazel and I could plot the exact position of the trenches to the Ordnance Survey grid and exact heights above sea level. Simon from Archaeological Investigations had already given us two temporary benchmarks with his GPS last week.

EDM Survey - got to know where your trenches are!

We were also treated today by some lollies courtesy of Clare's Mum, a truly wonderful woman. We enjoyed them throuoghly and was just the thing we needed after some hard graft.

Nommmmmmmm

So, the end of the excavation is nigh. This week has gone so quickly and 'Day 11' will be a complete day of clearing up and getting everything cleared, bagged up, and put in the right place. And Valerie, the president of the Society, is coming to site tomorrow.  Valerie and Rod have been the main driving forces behind getting this dig to happen for the Society and it has taken almost 2 years of paperwork, form filling, meetings and launch meetings and even more paperwork to make it happen  and all the team are indebted to the pair of them for making this happen, making it such a great experience and getting to the bottom of the Olivers Mound story.

See you tomorrow x

Well, here we are at Day 9 and there's only really one day of excavation left really before the backfilling starts on Friday. Quite sad, really - this week has gone extremely fast. However, today was the wettest day (if you don't count the rain off on Monday afternoon). It was also boys versus the girls as Terry was relegated to Trench 2 for the morning whilst us girls finished off in Trench 1.

Progress? All the excavating in Trench 1 has been completed now, and all it needs tomorrow is a final clean, photograph and to finish the plan and section and make sure all our written record is up to date. As for interpretation, I may save that for the end (she procrastinated) although we have certainly got at least 2 (if not 3) walls, which may form the corner of the original tower and adjoining curtain wall. Given our timescale, we have only really had time to re-excavate  Masterman's backfill (he certainly left enough finds behind) and exposed the walls that he must have exposed (we have no primary records for what Masterman found) and see how his interpretation of an octagonal corner tower stands up.


Hazel finishing off the final bit of excavation in the north-east side of the trench  - we have finally got down to a gravel layer (possibly the natural) in the south-east side (where the finds bag is).

In Trench 2, we have checked the natural is indeed the natural by taking a small sondage in one corner (it is). We have also extended the trench by 1m to the east to see if we can find anything more of note. So far, we have got down to the tile layer that was discovered in Days 4 & 5  and found some glazed roof tile. This may be the find of the dig, although there was a quite remarkable jawbone from Trench 1 as well.

All hail the mighty jawbone.


The boys muck in and start geting through the Trench 2 extension.


Back down to the tile layer, carefully being excavated by Rod and Rollo.

We also had a visit today from Tim Yarnold from the Forestry Commission (on whose land Olivers Mound sits) who have been extremely helpful in arranging access to the site and the clearance of the site for all the surveys and the excavation.

Chris gives Tim Yarnold the lowdown.

Indiana Jones tomorrow night. And the weather tomorrow is - for no rain! Huzzah.

Hi there,

Tina and Hazel planning the stone walls in Trench 1

Trench 1 progress - note the 'square' area of stones to the centre of the trench that I have to finish exposing tomorrow. Also, the white patch is not mortar as I first thought, but a white limestone.

Trench 2 found no new archaeology and we have finally got down to the natural gravels. Dale is going to take a small sondage through it just to check, but with 3 days left there may be a scope to extend the trench and see if we find anything else nearby. No finds that appear earlier than early Medieval as yet.

Trench 2 down to the natural. Notice where the tile spread came in in the section.

Weather check: Oh dear. Waterproofs again tomorrow.

Well, it was a wet one today, as I'm sure everyone will agree. A bit damp all day really, but about 3.30pm, the heavens really opened and we weren't going to get much acheived after that. So what progress?

Progress in Trench 1 just before lunch. Still some rubble to take off in the middle, but some definete walls coming in. The east/west wall just to the right of the horizontal (left/right) ranging pole could possibly be a corner as the edge is tooled on both sides - there is also definetely a second course below it too, which you can just see.

Rod and Hazel sorting out some paperwork.

In Trench 2, we are still going down and down into the orange depsit. No more signs of any bits of castle yet!

Progress in Trench 2 - they have definetely gone down much further than the deposits in Trench 1 - you can see in teh section the level of the tile spread exposed at the end of last week.

So, because of the weather, lunch was in the gazebo with the rain lashing down about us. And! We have a trip to see the new Indiana Jones film on Thursday evening in Kidderminster (see trailer below, or follow the link here). I've been taking loads of video of the dig too and have been struggling with getting movie maker to work, so hopefully by the week-end I will have some you tube videos up on their site to have a look at the dig in action.

In the gazebo - Dave, Rod, Hazel, Rollo, Claire Chris and new recruit Sam in front.

A rather damp walk back...

INDIANA JONES TRAILER to get you in the mood.........

Well, it was very quiet yesterday. I went to site and the only people who showed up were a couple with a dog who didn't even know Olivers Mound was there! So I took the opportunity to wash some of the finds from Trench 1.

Pottery from Trench 1, including a nice rim sherd, probably from a shallow bowl.


Me, marking up some finds.

A tile from the Trench 2 tile spread.

We were soon joined by Rod and Rollo and we had a small tour of the small quarry to the east of the site from which the castle stone would have come, which was excellent as I had missed it on Day 1 (Monday). However, it was clear there was a lot of geology going on (I don't pretend to understand it all, but Rollo is best to explain!).

The small sandstone quarry.

Medieval cutmarks still in the sandstone.


Rollo at the quarry - note the layers of below the main quarrying stone depicting events of millions of years ago

Despite warnings that the weather was going to be bad, it was one of the hottest days so far this week. Not so great now, though - will be bringing my waterproofs to site tomorrow!

HI there,

Terry and Hazel do a plan of Trench 1 - note tree going through middle of trench!

Trench 1 at the end of Day 5 - you can clearly see in the far (north) side of the trench some wall alignments. The foundations for a tower? Or later Victorian remodelling to make a folly from the remains?

Dave and Vicky expose the roof tile spread


All spanky and clean - and right across the trench.

Close-up of one of the tiles from Trench 2.

Oh - and I have been playing with the Society's new camcorder and have lots of footage - and as soon as I work out how you tube works will put something up. A project for Sunday perhaps.

Toodlepip.

Sorry this post is a day late, but couldn't get onto the Internet last night. Well, a visit by the local constabulary this morning  - no, they were just interested in the site and bizarrely enough loads of people had been going into the police station to ask about it.

Dale explaining himself to the local bobby...

Trench 1 progress has been made with clearing more debris off the top north-erast corner to expose a more level surface than the rest of the stone layer in the trench which appears to be a stone dump, possibly associated with Masterman's original excavations. Lots of cleaning back to expose the rest of the stones in this trench - and the odd bit of sawing of large tree roots! Lots more finds, including a nice rim sherd (the right date - early medieval),lumps of mortar, tile, some slag and at least a couple of nails. We're still in the subsoil, though...

Terry and Hazel exposing the flatter 'surface' of stones to the north east of Trench 1

There's a geophysics anomoly (aka collapsed 13th century castle) under there somewhere!

Wildlife seen on site today: a sloe worm and a frog.

I'm exhausted! All this time I have become an office bum, or just staring up at old buildings with a clipboard, I have forgotten what it feels like to trowel all day and be outside in the lovely sunshine. Was excellent. We have a great team of core and semi-core diggers including Chris (in charge), Dale, Hazel, Rod, Jenny, Tina, Vicky, Terry, Dave, Vicky and Rollo. First thing this morning was setting up our lovely gazebo (very Time Team, I know) which felt almost akin to the Amish Barn Raising. I say almost, as the first attempt was a disaster and we had to take the thing down and put the right poles in the right places! Good job Jenny turned up when she did, else it would have been a disaster. Thanks Jenny! The instructions were useless though.

Vicky, Terry & Hazel on the first attempt!


Jenny steps in and makes us do it again (thank goodness!)


Ha ha! Even at 6'5" Chris has a problem reaching the roof in the great barn raising scene...


Ta-Da! Now all we need is a bar. Possibly a dance floor.

Hazel and Tina in Trench 1

Trench 2 (in the position of one of the anomolies revealed by the geophysics) hasn't exposed any features yet apart from a nice piece of dressed stone and some more pottery and a nail. It's much easier to dig that trench methinks due to the eveness of the ground there!

Jenny, Rod & Rollo in Trench 2

Looking forward to Day 3 - more sunshine is promised.

Oh, and for those reading that may know what I'm on about, I met the young Edward today for the first time - he has his Dad's eyebrows (apparently!).

Hi All,

In the afternoon, Chris Clarke from AOC along with Dale from Archaeological Investigations went through where the trenches were going to go and the general methodology of the site. A Project Brief has been completed and there is going to be two trenches in all - on the site of one of Masterman's trenches and one in the area of the one of the anomolies turned up by the geophysics.

Rod Sproat, Secretary of the Society and Simon Mayes from Archaeological Investigations at the pre-site meeting
Photo: Copyright Archaeological Investigations


All the folk at the pre-site meeting, Ed Simons and (the very tall) Chris Clarke from AOC at the front, Valerie Powick (Honorary Chairman of the Society) sitting down.
Photo: Copyright Archaeological Investigations

Andy Boucher from Archaeological Investigations has also spent some time putting together a brief precis of the results gained so far here. There was a meeting last Tuesday (see above) to decide how all the practicalities were going to be sorted out and hopefully everything will run as smoothly as we all hope! First problem, though, the 'loo' man's truck got stuck and he had to leave his truck down there with our loo still on the back! Tomorrow's first job will be putting up the the big gazebo tent. I'm told there are no instructions - how hard can it be? Famous last words...

Weather Check: Tuesday is meant to be sunny, up to 17 degrees. Scorchio!

Metal detectorists thrilled at Viking sword find Isle of Man Today [UK], 06 May 2008

BURIED for more than a 1,000 years, these beautifully cast fragments of a Viking sword could be a once-in-a-lifetime find for two metal detector enthusiasts in the Isle of Man. Only the 13th recorded Viking sword found in the Island, it was unearthed by Dan Crowe and Rob Farrer while metal detecting in the north west of the Island.
Manx National Heritage curator for archaeology, Allison Fox, said:
'This is only the 13th recorded Viking sword from the Island – but Dan and Rob knew what they were looking at and what to do next, in notifying MNH.

Short URL: http://snipr.com/285h3

http://www.iomtoday.co.im/news/Metal-detectorists-thrilled-at-Viking.4052052.jp

Prehistoric find at burial mound
BBC, 9 May 2008

Archaeologists have found tools from prehistoric times at an ancient burial ground on cliffs in East Sussex. Over the past two weeks a team of volunteers have found items from about 8,000 BC and a Neolithic period arrowhead at the site in Peacehaven. Coastal erosion means the burial mound from the Bronze Age will be unsafe to access in the next few years. The team hopes to record information about the round barrow before it collapses into the sea.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/7392396.stm

While wandering around Galway Bay on Sunday, Mr S spied this little face in the wall of a building.

Any idea what it represents. I am guessing that the stones of the building were reused from one of the ruined monasteries in the area, but I have no idea?

X