Just a quick entry this evening, with some photographs from the final day of the autumn excavation. There will be a full write up of the final day's findings on Sunday.
(unedited version, due to archaeological fieldwork damage)
This is going to be a bit of a truncated update this evening, largely because the person writing this entry is in so much pain, even his finger tips are hurting, for some of us, day 4 was that kind of a day! With the excavation reaching its penultimate day, we were faced with a raft of questions and next to no time in which to resolve them. Although formally known as ‘Site B’, in practice, this one increasingly large building has now been divided into three areas of investigation. During work on day 3, new features emerged in all three of these areas, and, as much as possible, today was all about making sense of everything that came up yesterday.
Making sense of things is not however the easiest of pursuits. At the ‘oven’ end of the site, a double wall feature had been identified at the end of day 3. A full day of excavation later, and we are still none the wiser. What we can say is that we have some substantial wall features, with at least ten courses of dressed stone walls revealed by the afternoon. Capping one of these walls are two substantial flat stones, yet the purpose of these stones is utterly unclear. We do know that there is some wall collapse visible in section, which runs off in the direction of our original oven feature. Day 5 will be focused in on revealing as much of the relationship between wall and oven as possible, but the meters worth of rubble stone in fill will make this one heck of a challenge.
In the middle of site B, having removed the somewhat ephemeral internal stone wall, the team was finally allowed to start lifting the surviving floor surface, including Claire’s much coveted millstone. This was intended as an exercise of ‘just in case’, an effort to reassure ourselves that there were no underlying features. As is so often the way though, there were, of course, underlying features. In this case an earlier flagstone floor. Reasonable well preserved, this floor surface seems to extend from the flagstone floor identified in the summer. Hopefully we can finish off cleaning this extended feature in the morning, and possibly use it to aid our understanding of where the door to this fifteen meter long building was (after two excavations, we still don’t have a way into the building)!
Then there was the pig sty end of the structure, where yesterday Chris and Andy has found a series of new walls and a further flagstone surface. The guys did a great job cleaning the features found yesterday, but ultimately progress was limited by the pig sty from which the site derives its name. Set in the middle of the western end of the site is a (barely) standing pig sty. Overlying the very same wall and floor features revealed yesterday, the pig sty is in such a precarious state that excavation in close proximity to it was just simply too unsafe. Before we can proceed, the pig sty will need recording and then removal, which means our understanding of this site will be far from complete until at least the first third of 2014.
The deeper we go, the more we know and the less we understand...which is probably why we will return here at least once more. Until then, we have one day to go, and a final chance in the morning to resolve some of our outstanding archaeological problems.
Well, this site just keeps on developing. This might not have been the day for the spectacular, but it was certainly a day for the enigmatic. That being said, there was plenty of the practical and mundane about proceedings as well. With the sheer volume of features coming up, we really had to set about recording some features today, before making any real additional progress in the middle of the structure. So, with that in mind, large amounts of planning became a feature of the morning. Following this, we were finally able to remove the partial wall feature in the middle of the main building, and resolve at least one question. With the wall removed, we could say for certain that it had been a much later insertion, and the flag stone floor, including yesterday’s millstone, was a coherent feature crossing the width of the building. With day 3 done, we had answered a single question!
However, at either end of the site, things were not so simple. At the western end of the structure, where the standing ‘pig sty’ feature can be found, the walls keep on coming. Chris has developed somewhat of a reputation for finding it impossible not to find walls, pretty much everywhere we have put him, he has found a wall underneath him. A brilliant thing in many respects, but not so good for understanding the workings of the site. In the south west of the structure are now a series of joining walls. Two clearly defined and substantial external walls and at least two internal walls, with possible a third to add to the mix, have now been revealed. The bizarre thing about these walls is the space they are all found in, which cannot be much more than a meter or so squared. One of these ‘walls’ blocks off a tiny area of the structure, suggesting it might have been some manner of internal platform, or indeed one of the most pointless rooms every conceived. With yet another flagstone floor beginning to appear after lunch, the concepts surrounding what this part of the building are anything but static, with new theories developing as quickly as walls are appearing...which surprisingly is quite frequent. End of day three at the western end, we are none the wiser.
At the eastern end, and associated with the excitement of the day 1 ‘bread oven’, the day largely focussed on defining the various external walls which surrounded the oven. We had had some success in revealing the courses of stone which formed the outer skin of the oven, and on the southern side of the building, we had begun to reveal the extent of the adjoining external wall. Much of the day was spent shifting stone tumble, hours of the day in fact was spent shifting rubble. But at the very end of the day, with minutes of daylight left, we had our reward. First, in the middle of the eastern profile of the wall at the extent of the structure, we found a distinctive curve. Not only did the wall curve, but it was encrusted in soot - a second oven perhaps? That was not the end of the story, as a second wall was found abutting this curving feature, heading off into the rubble, but in the direction of the rear of the oven. Two great features to close the day on, but features that only ask more questions of an already seriously complicated site.
Ideas of this being a malt house have been pitched today, but, as with every other day, we will hope to get a clearer picture by close of play tomorrow, and will probably end up none the wiser at the end of it all. This remains a brilliant site, but one that we understand less the more we dig, great stuff this archaeology eh?!
Day 2 of the autumn excavation was always going to be up against it in terms of expectation levels. Day 1 had brought us complete ceramic vessels and, of course, a complete bread oven. How was day 2 ever going to match up to that? Well, it certainly did its best to impress.
While a complete bread oven was a staggering piece of archaeology, site supervisor Claire was clearly in the mood to impress, when she unearthed roughly two thirds of a millstone. Now I’ve seen a lot of millstones in my time, and have heard of plenty being excavated, but from a personal perspective, this was the very first one that I’ve seen come out of the ground. Two days, two archaeological treats.
The millstone was particularly distinctive, with the clear stone dressing associated with such features. The most eye catching element though was a series of numbers on the surface of the stone, which denote the weight value of the stone. Another first, as no one on site had seen a millstone with such features, which resulted in the hurried establishment of an ‘off-site’ team, otherwise manifest as text message exchanges with Rebecca from the summer team, who was quickly sent to the archives to ‘radio in’ information about our find. This find came up during the morning session, and it was a pretty special way to start the day. Rarely on an excavation do you get a ‘down tools’ moment, where everyone hurries over to see the latest big discovery. We have been fortunate to have two such moments in two days – this is the site that keeps on giving.
Elsewhere, the site continues to grow at either end. At the eastern end of the site, close to where the bread oven was found, even more wall features were (eventually) revealed. It seems likely that we now have the full extent of the structure, with corners clearly defined at both western and eastern extents of the structure, though we need to measure the site again in the morning to report on the official length. The eastern end though proved most challenging to excavate, with a huge amount of stone rubble obscuring the features, with section edges frequently caving in, making excavation a generally precarious pursuit. The stone fill here though appears similar in size and style to that which creates the bread oven domed ceiling. This might yet indicate that a second, but collapsed, oven would have been positioned to the rear of the building. This theory will be a major line of research going into day 3.
Beyond the millstone, this was probably a slightly quieter day in terms of artefacts. However in the mix of ceramics to be recovered, more seventeenth century wares were identified, and one sherd, while we are not entirely certain yet, might prove to be even earlier. There is a heck of a lot of stone to shift tomorrow to fully understand the relationship between the oven(s) and the rest of the building, but a big effort tomorrow might help resolve that. The key thing though, is if more of these earlier ceramic fabrics continue to appear, it might just be the case that instead of looking at a seventeenth century building, we might just be able to take things back to the sixteenth century. Considering that when we opened this site in the summer we thought that we were looking at a nineteenth century animal enclosure, this would be a pretty impressive series of developments.
I'm sure you will all forgive me because tonight is just going to be a photo blog entry from day 5. The full blog posting covering today's activities will follow on Saturday morning, but there is only just enough energy in the tank left to bring up these images, and then sleep! It has been a fantastic weeks worth of archaeological excavations, and we have had some very positive and very surprising results from our three sites. Sites A and B continued on the final day to reveal new features, and what was an external wall on site B, rapidly shaping up to be internal wall by the end of the day, really confused the picture.
More to come tomorrow, but hopefully the images below will begin to tell the tale of the final day of this summers excavations.
Plus - there is now a very good chance that the summer excavations, will be followed up by an autumn excavation as well, but more on that in the weeks to come.
What a day it has been. We knew today would be physically intense, though many of us perhaps still underestimated quite what it would take out of us. With a shorter day coming up tomorrow, today was going to be crucial in terms of answering major questions across the three sites. As is often the way with these excavations, we have probably only generated more questions - but at least we have another day to explore them a little further.
First mention goes to site C today, because we won't be looking at it again tomorrow. Both Dave and Andy did a remarkable job in sectioning this mound, and have managed to bring the mystery to a conclusion. Between them they managed to work through about 1.3m worth of stone rubble fill, creating what looked rather like a well, or a mine shaft, by the end of the day. Despite this feature being sectioned and recorded, it's hard to be certain what was going on here. Certainly this was a stone waste heap of some form, probably associated with one of the other buildings that are being investigated, but this might just be one of those features that requires another look at some point in the feature to better understand how it connects to the surrounding landscape.
For sites A and B, defined features were a little more forthcoming, but perhaps still not particularly easily understood. Site A, having frequently been an exercise in lifting iron sheeting, today became an ongoing argument between David and Anne over whether or not a wall was a wall. 'Argument' should be taken for 'on going' discussion, but a linear feature was certainly subject for debate, with theories split between floor and wall features. By the end of the day this had clearly become a wall, and we were picking up some nice post holes in places, with one post still partially in place. Later in the day, it seemed as though an actual floor surface was coming through in the northern part of the building. However this is one feature that will need to be explored quickly tomorrow morning - the feature is tempting, but possibly a little too disturbed at this point for us to be confident about it being a floor. Hopefully all will be revealed by this time tomorrow.
As for site B, our never ending chase for wall features only really resulted in the uncovering of more wall features. The highlight of the day though had to be the discovery of a complete floor surface in the north eastern end of the building. Having hit a compact clay surface, we thought we might have found a level to aim for, but a little test of the surface uncovered first one flat stone, then another and before we really had a chance to take it in, we had a complete row of aligned stones, with associated flag stones running the width of the building. It was a great find, which included some stratified 17th century ceramics. One interesting element remains though, and that is a large amount of sooting and burnt sandstone. There was clearly a fire in this part of the building, but do we have a fireplace, a bread oven perhaps? Something else to look at in the morning.
We have also found the fourth external wall, making it possibly to plan in the internal parameters of the building. However it now appears that a fourth internal wall, and possibly a fifth have come through. Very early days on this, and the optimistic interpretation could put this as a fire place, or a staircase foundation - the amount of and size of stone rubble coming out of the trench, compared to surviving wall heights, means that a two story structure is not out of the question here.
So, with a day to go, we certainly understand all three sites much better than we did a week ago. Questions remain though, and hopefully one final big push in the morning will see at least some of those issues resolved.
What a day! We had some real breakthroughs on day 2, but the returns today really blew yesterday out of the water. What a difference a big team makes as well. We were back up to around eleven archaeologists today, and the extra hands really helped in moving things along, particularly so on sites B and C. But before we get into the archaeology, special thanks must first by given to Maddy Gray, from the History Dept at the University of South Wales. Guests to the excavation are always very welcome, but those who bring multiple fruit cakes are particularly so - you are most welcome to return!
In terms of the archaeology, we'll start with site B. Yesterday provided some tantalizing features in the largest of the three trenches, with the shape of two internal wall features beginning to emerge by the end of the day. These became the main target for the day, and we were certainly rewarded for this strategy. Two internal wall features have now been partially revealed. After initially appearing to be largely robbed out of its features, by the end of day 3, we had managed to identify several courses of surviving stone on one of the two walls. However, while hard work was being completed on the clearing and identification of these features, work was also undertaken on the north eastern end of the structure, which had largely been overlooked until today. This also proved to be hugely rewarding. Finding one of the remaining building corners was promising, but as the exterior wall was fully exposed, we found a particularly high quality window sill and partial frame. Then we found a third interior wall - it was really a case of one great breakthrough after another. We even returned our first piece of clay pipe, usually not cause for celebration, but any dating material is very welcome in this site.
Site B though, for all of its features, is proving to be more and more confusing. Having initially been presumed to be an agricultural building, it increasingly now looks domestic, with substantial exterior walls, well finished stonework in the window surround, and a series of reasonably substantial interior walls. But, and its a big but, there is very little to no artefactual materials. One pipe stem and bowl, two pot sherds and some glass shards seems a very small return were this to have been a domestic structure in use for any period of time. So, was this a short term use building? Was it actually a very well finished agricultural building (unlikely)? Or have we just got it completely wrong? We'll hopefully find out tomorrow.
From difficult to understand, to utterly baffling, site C continues to confuse. The mound structure was hit hard today, with a large section cut through the feature to try and get some sense of the phases of the mound. This proved more challenging to attain, as the mound appeared to be dominated by stone rubble. Yet at the very top of the mound now appears to be some manner of surface, with level, flat stones in place. Coupled with this feature is the fact that this site continues to produce the oldest dateable material from all three sites, with more late medieval ceramic ware coming from the stone fill. While this could be a simple stone dump, the dateable objects suggest that there is more to this mound than simply being a dump, if just in terms of periods of construction.
Site A continued in a similar vein to yesterday. I must admit I did not have much opportunity to explore site A (being focused on stone removal at site B). However, more surfaces and features are emerging, but it is still the case that corrugated iron sheeting remains the bane of this site. Wherever people turn, they are tripping on sheeting. This has slowed progress significantly, and tomorrow site A is likely to get some special attention, in the form of mattocks.
And so we move into the penultimate day, and how rapidly it has come. Three very interesting sites each with a series of particular archaeological problems. With a smaller team again for Thursday, and a lot of features to make sense of, this is going to be our hardest day of the lot - prepare for a clearer understanding of all the features uncovered today, and some seriously bad backs!
Day 2 was always going to be a bit of a struggle. Not only were we looking at our lowest team numbers today, but site B was destined to be a mammoth exercise in the art of mattocks. However we can’t really complain about anything, the work might have been incredibly heavy going at times, but we had a continuation of the great weather, and some very positive results.
All three sites were producing interesting contributions today, and site C came into its own early on in the day. Site C, the large barrow type feature, is looking increasingly like a waste heap of stone material, possibly from the other two buildings. We are a long way off understanding this feature, and it may yet reveal some much earlier phases when we tackle it with a little more archaeological aggression tomorrow morning. Yet despite looking like one of the later features, it has produced the earliest finds. A very nice late medieval rim sherd came out of the lower half of the mound, with some surviving green glaze on the outer surface. With that find, site C is probably leading the race for find of the week, but its early days.
Site B is becoming the real monster of the excavation. We knew yesterday that this was going to be a substantial building, but we only really got to appreciate the scale of the situation by lunchtime today. A good two hours worth of mattocking, shifting what must have been in excess of a tonne of stone, revealed around eight new courses of stone in the surviving walls, coming down on to our first real surface. While not entirely coherent, a compact clay surface has emerged, which we will look at more closely tomorrow. Suffice to say this building is looking large, and more and more it seems likely that this was a long house. By the end of the day, we had identified an internal wall feature, which will again the focus of attentions in the morning. The way site B is going, is might begin to swallow up team members from other sites – there is a lot more rock to move, a lot more mattocking to come, and a heck of a lot left to make sense of, all good archaeological problems to have.
Site A continued to produce interesting features as well. Yesterday all sorts of odd metal work was coming out of the ground, with corrugated iron sheeting scattered all over the place. Some manner of railing or partition had been identified yesterday, and in rough association, it seems that we have now uncovered a channel, in which some manner of doorway, or barrier, could have sat. Theories at the close of play today were warming to the idea that this was some manner of animal enclosure, at least in the last phase of the sites use. More iron sheeting awaits to be removed, so we may get a better understanding of any earlier phases once the last of this iron surface has been cleared, hopefully tomorrow.
So, that is where we are. Tomorrow will see mattocks at the ready once more, and hopefully some breakthroughs will be made regarding the nature of site C, and the earlier periods of site A. For now though, many hours of mattocking and rock shifting means only one thing, refreshments and an early night!
We had our final preparations today with all of the tools loaded and relocated to the dig site. On inspection, new barrows will be in order for next summer - these rust buckets may not make it through the week. Hard hats make an appearance for the first time in a while on our excavations - working near some standing remains make it a must this time around. In some of the other shots, you can make our two of the target areas for this week. Site A has some nice standing features, recording these will be the first order of business, while site C remains as mysterious a mound as it has ever been, hopefully we'll have this cleared up by the end of the week.
We are currently in the process of clearing the excavation areas, and gradually more and more footings are beginning to appear. We wanted to post some preliminary images of two of the target buildings, just to give a feel of what the site was like before excavations get underway in a weeks time. Overgrown certainly, but at the same time, you can see there are some great surviving features, you'll just have to take our word for the moment on the wider footings, they are there, just a little hidden in the greenery.
Oh, and in case anyone is wondering, yes, there will be hard hats for this one!