The Saga Continues ...

Good news for all those who have been following this blog - the digging has started for 2009!

I have recommenced the pit I left open in 2008 at level 8. As well as very quickly turning up pieces of Iron Age pottery I made a momentous find - my first substantial piece of verdigris coated metal. It isn't much to look at but it is a first. I have spotted the tell-tale green signs before but they have crumbled to nothing. This time the chunk stayed in one piece - see photo above.

I have toyed with the idea of filling this pit in and not continuing but I have resisted on the basis that something of significance might be lurking in it. We will see ...

A Talk and a Nodule

I have just given a talk to a neighbouring Local History Group on the subject of Back Garden Archaeology. It went reasonably well considering it was touch and go whether I’d be able to do it due to a sore throat and loss of voice. My voice held out in the end. To give me strength on the day I told myself that I had volunteered to talk, it was on a topic that I enjoyed and that I wanted to do it.

There were questions and comments at the end that were encouraging. Someone asked if the stone of the pot-boilers was local and when I said it wasn’t they suggested that it had come from the coast because of its sea-tossed smoothness. Someone else suggested it could be more local than the coast and glacial in formation. All of which indicates a line of research if I can find an informative geologist somewhere.

There was some interest in the examples of slag that I had taken along. No one seemed to know if it should show signs of a metal reaction under a metal detector and anyway I had discovered that not all slag is the result of metal working anyway. So, what form of industry do the examples I have unearthed suggest? That is another line of inquiry.

I said during the talk that I had not found anything made of metal of any significance and that no worked flint had appeared. There is just one item that makes me reconsider this but I didn't mention it. It is a flint nodule of a very comfortable hand-shaped size (see the photos) that seems to be pock-marked with chips added to which it has a pointy side and a hemispherical side. I wonder whether it is natural or a tool of some kind. It is not that I am desperate to find a significant piece of flint but it would be nice considering how much has been tossed on the spoil heap.

The Snails Are Back!

Just in case you can't see what this is - it's a snail shell.

I am 70 to 80cm down and shells like this have started to appear. I am encouraged to find them as they mean that the soil I am going through was on the surface at one time. Either the snails were part of infill or they got into the ditch as it was filling up. Judging by the nature of the soil it seems like the former. In previous digs I have seen the layers that have built up in the ditch as fine dark soil. What I am going through is very coarse with a lot of chalk and flint so it could be late Iron Age infill.

A New Start

After weeks of rainy days I have returned to my neglected dig. I decided to shore the sides up before continuing as they looked unsafe. That way I can leave things open over the winter if I can't get to the bottom before the weather closes in.

How do the professionals cope with adverse weather conditions?

I am just going into level 7. Compared with previous digs into the same ditch feature (only a foot or two away) I am finding fewer sherds of pottery and animal bones, so far, but I am prepared to be surprised.

I am beginning to think that the first test pit I sunk into this feature uncovered the area that was open longest and got filled up with the most Iron Age domestic waste (lots of animal bone, pottery, pot-boilers).

Unexpected Help

I am still continuing with my dig although I have been hindered by bad weather and other demands on my time. Recently, after a prolonged period of rain, I looked in the pit and saw that I'd had help! A hedgehog had wandered in and could not get out. Over a period of days it had scratched away at the sides in an attempt to escape. Luckily I managed to lift it out in time and initially it looked exhausted but when I started up the lawn mower to cut adjacent grass it uncurled and fled. I now leave a hedgehog escape ramp in the pit when I am rained off.

Regrouping

The village I live in is called a "nucleated settlement" with dwellings concentrated at one spot in the landscape and formerly surrounded by the Open Fields. The experts say that prior to this dwellings were dispersed over the landscape. So, when did nucleation begin? Also, there are signs that the village layout was replanned at some time in the past to give it a more regular appearance. When did this happen? I started to dig in the back garden in order to answer these questions ...

... and I have decided that answering these questions is more important, at the moment, than finding the end or the continuation of the Iron Age ditch. Finding pottery (or anything else) provides a chance of obtaining dating evidence for continuous habitation on this plot of land. That could help with the nucleation question if not the one of replanning.

After I've documented the current dig and packaged the finds so that I can obtain expert advice on type and date, I plan to open a test pit at the bottom end of the garden in order to explore something completely different!

Rock Bottom!

As I trowelled off the surface of layer 6 I realised that I was seeing the natural sub-soil, a light brown mixture of pieces of chalk and clay. Bad news!

For anyone who hasn't read the earlier posts I was hoping to find the continuation of a ditch feature running into the garden from the boundary. The diagram below (not to scale) shows the location of previous digs, the possible direction of the ditch feature and the test pit I have been working on in 2007.


So, I have to conclude, at least, that the ditch doesn't run in a straight line. Tantalisingly the natural surface slopes off towards the edge of the test pit (on the boundary side). Does the ditch continue but not in a straight line? Or, perhaps it isn't a ditch at all. It could be a hole dug for some practical purpose like the acquisition of clay.

Watching Time Team prepares you for such set backs! I will have to regroup, consult the "Mick Aston" within and decide how to proceed.

In the meantime, the grass needs cutting!

And there were Bones ...

When I found the pot-boilers I also found a mass of animal bones. Although I am still finding the odd bit of bone in other digs in the garden there is nothing like the same amount.

The photo shows the accumulation of bones from two previous digs that explored the Iron Age ditch feature. Along the bottom there are an array of animal teeth and bits of jaw bone. The biggest bone in the photo was found 1.1 metres down. As the pottery found at this level and lower was crisply broken and not worn it is fair to assume that all of this domestic debris was discarded close to where it was used.

By contrast, my current dig is further down the garden and although I am finding pottery and bone it would appear that it has been much disturbed by cultivation.

Stop press: I have cleared level 5 and I am starting on level 6. More about that later.

Level 4: The Outcome

I've started on level 5. That in itself is of interest as in previous digs (prior to finding the ditch) level 5 was where I hit the natural subsoil. But no end is in sight yet. Still, best not to get excited.

The total outcome of level 4 in terms of pieces of pottery (plus a nail and a piece of clay pipe) is shown in the photograph. It is from a mixture of ages. Exactly what they are I will have to get an expert to say.

From previous experience the typical span seems to be Iron Age and Roman with a gap until the 11th century. I have had nothing dated as Anglo-Saxon yet.

The fun starts ...

As I expected, pieces of late Iron Age "local coarse ware" appeared at level 4.


Consistent with other finds in previous years, they are two abraded pieces of calcite-gritted pottery with a black fabric. Both are shown in the accompanying photograph. One has a buff/orange outer surface but on the reverse it is identically coloured to the other. The "grit" can just be seen as white specks in the upper sherd.


Although this type of pottery is a hand-made variety typical of the late Iron Age period it is highly likely that it continued to be made during the centuries following Romanisation, especially in rural areas and amongst the agricultural population.


The fact that such pieces of pottery are excessively worn at level 4 suggests that they remained in the cultivated upper levels of the soil after being discarded. By comparison, pieces found at lower levels are particularly crisp having rested where they were thrown without disturbance.

Well it interests me ...

I haven't found anything valuable at all and the only metal objects to surface have been relatively recent iron nails and the like. But that doesn't mean it isn't exciting to dig. Pieces of pottery are exciting enough but every so often something really catches the imagination.


In level 3 of the latest dig I found a number of partially green-glazed sherds in close proximity. I always check if similar pieces fit together. Although the breaks didn't match I realised that one piece which looked like part of a rim could actually be part of a lid. When I put it against a piece that was definitely a rim I concluded that they came from the same vessel!




I need to get the pairing checked and also have the type of pottery identified and dated but in the meantime I'm sure that I've found my first piece of a lid. Also, I've no doubt that the rim carried a lid as it is damaged on its upper surface consistent with constantly having something knocked against it.

The Background in a Nutshell

Digs in previous years uncovered a ditch feature with a depth of 1.5 metres running for 10 metres between the furthest apart digs conducted to date. The width of the ditch at its top is approxiamtely 3.8 metres. The ditch runs into the garden at an angle to the boundary.

The main discovery in the ditch over the three completed digs has been copious pieces of "local coarse ware" pottery which has been dated by experts to the late Iron Age. Accompanying this has been a smaller quantity of Romano-British pottery.

The photo shows the new dig for 2007, in the foreground, in relation to the projected edge of the ditch (marked by orange tape). The test pit is approximately 6.5 metres from the last trench (3 m x 1m) dug in 2005.

The aim is to show whether or not the ditch feature continues further into the garden.

As of the date of this post I am clearing level 4. I referred to this in my previous post as "where the fun starts" because it is the level at which I have previously found signs of the Iron Age.

New back garden dig for 2007

After conducting archaeological digs in the back garden in 2003, 2004 and 2005, I had to have a break in 2006 (at least I was able to fill in the trench left open from 2005). This year, 2007, I made an early start and opened a test pit (1 metre square) on Monday 26 March. I will explain its purpose in a future post.

I have written about some of the previous digs on the village's local history website.

I moved the first 2 layers of the new dig (each 10 centimetres deep) with a shovel and riddled the soil. Thereafter I started trowelling.

Layer 4 is usually where the fun starts but I found some interesting pieces of pottery in layer 3 ...