Digging Resumes for 2008

With the weather improving, at last, I have opened a new dig for 2008 measuring 1 by 1.5 metres and I have just cleared layers 1 and 2 - as quickly as possible.

I decided to put this pit in between Test Pit 2 and Trench 1 that I showed in the layout in a previous entry called Rock Bottom (dated 10/04/07). I realised that the incidence of domestic remains like pot boilers, bones and copious sherds of pottery had been falling off as I have progressed away from the test pit I dug in 2003. I am hoping that I will reveal more of that in this latest dig.

The photo above shows the positioning of the test pit in relation to the approximate sloping side of the Iron Age ditch feature I am digging into (shown as a red line). The other side of the ditch is out of shot on the other side of the fence on the left. I expect to dig into the deepest part of the ditch.

Pause for Thought

There are two reasons I haven't been digging in the back garden recently. One is that I had to take a break because of my daughter's wedding, the other is that I have been on an archaeology course for a week. With other volunteers, on a major urban dig, I learnt about the theory and practice of professional archaeology.

I was lucky enough to be able to attend for free as the course was part of a Community Archaeology initiative. Instruction and supervision were outstanding. I have to admit that it was a surprise to find that digging was a minor part of the course with the emphasis being to learn about the methods employed on and off site to fully record what is uncovered. In hindsight I see the sense of that. Reading about archaeology had not prepared me for the rigorousness of the actual practice.

I have dual interests, one for my personal efforts and the other for initiatives within the wider area of the parish in association with a local history group. I need to mull it all over ......

I find myself mulling over the significance to me of single-context recording, the hand-drawing of contexts and the relevance of the matrix to my efforts in the back garden.

Hopefully I won't be mesmerised into inactivity .....

One Iron Age Sherd

The only type of pottery I can reliably identify, because of the guidance of experts, is late Iron Age "local coarse ware". It is good to have at least one point of reference.

The photo above shows the latest single piece from Test Pit 2. It was found at level 4, which is normally the case. It is a rim piece that I've scanned to show the colour and nature of the fabric with its white inclusions.

I've no doubt that the presence of this type of pottery represents late Iron Age settlement in the immediate vicinity. The presence of copious amounts of this type of pottery in a previous dig, below, alongside and above pottery from the Roman era, suggest a continuation of use of the coarse ware either side of Romanisation.

Test Pit 2 - Closed!

I haven't been keeping up with events! Test Pit 2 petered out at around 40 cm. I scraped the bottom, measured the depth and then filled it in (and sowed some grass seed on the top).

The pottery finds are laid out above. Level 4 included some older looking pieces, including the largest piece (top right) which was of a colour and fabric I haven't seen before. More about that later.

One piece missing from the photo is a single rim-piece of "local coarse ware". It is identical in colour and fabric to my other late Iron Age pieces (see following entry). So, true to form, I always find at least one piece of this type wherever I dig in the garden.

The piece I featured in my previous entry seems similar in fabric (and inclusions) to two pieces of a gritty nature that have a green glazed finish. Although these have signs of a grey core, the fact that they appear to have the same brown pebbly inclusions makes me think that they are related. I thought that the orange piece I wrote about last might be older than this.

Oh for a pottery expert I can run to with such things!

Test Pit 2

I've started on Test Pit 2! The photo above shows the location: at the bottom of the garden. Beyond the hedge is a back lane. On the other side of that were the open fields before enclosure in 1772.

I said that I expected the same range of pottery only less. One of the first pieces I uncovered was of a type I haven't seen before - see below:

The outside (convex) surface is slightly darker than the inside (concave) surface though not quite as much as this scan suggests. The fabric is the same orange colour all the way through. The inclusions are interesting:

They are of two types: very minute, dark brown, pebble-like and smooth (on the left above); again minute, quartz-like, white/translucent (on the right).

The inside has two, not quite parallel, lines about 1.5 cms apart. Evidence of a tool used for smoothing, perhaps?

This piece was at level 1 (in the first 10 cms). I normally riddle the first two levels but I decided to trowel instead this time. I am glad I did!

I am quite excited about this piece for some reason!

Bereft of Finds!

I have packaged up my finds to date and taken them to a local museum for any possible help that is available to identify pottery types and dates.

What with that and catching up on assembling photographs and documentation from previous digs I have had my head down and I have not been able to open another test pit.

But I have got a location in the garden staked out ready. As it is further down the garden it means that it is more than likely to be in an area that has been continuously cultivated for centuries. I predict that I will find the same cross section of pottery but less of it. But I could be wrong. We will see.

More and more, the idea of community test-pitting as an organised event appeals to me, if only for the chance of being able to engage the necessary archaeological expertise. Having to go out and find that expertise as an individual is not easy.

I have tentatively started to ask others in the village if they would be willing to be involved by making a part of their garden available.

CORS & HEFA

I have been lent the Annual Report (No. 20) of the Medieval Settlement Research Group for 2005. It couldn't have come at a better time.

Low and behold, there is a paper by Carenza Lewis entitled, "Test pit excavation within occupied settlements in East Anglia in 2005" which "introduces a new project which is focussing on the archaeological investigation of medieval rural settlements that are still inhabited".

I am pleasantly surprised to see that a new (to me) acronym of CORS has been devised for "currently-occupied rural settlements". With CORS it would seem, test pits have become main stream and the verb "test pitting" has arrived.

The project described is tied in with the Higher Education Field Academy (HEFA - find out more here) thereby meeting twin archaeological and educational aims (and providing an archaeological workforce in the process).

The paper concludes, "In terms of archaeological results, it seems clear already that the HEFA model of test pit excavation within currently-occupied rural settlements can and does produce new and useful archaeological evidence".

How encouraging! Somehow I feel less confined to the periphery of archaeology. But it does make me want to catch up with the documentation of my test pitting!