So we are underway once more, and as winter closes in and the days grow shorter, our intrepid team of archaeologists are back at it once more. The excavation site in Llanfihangel Tor y Mynydd has served us incredibly well over the last two years, but this time we are back to try and finish things. Mercifully, the elements were on our side today. This time last year, we faced near constant rain and several wash outs, but a stiff breeze was all that ever really challenged us today.
A quick apology though. The senior members of the team are all staying on site this year, and in our collective wisdom, we managed to leave our camera download cables at another house. As a result, we can’t share any images from the site today, and probably tomorrow, but hopefully by Wednesday evening, we’ll be able to give a full image based break down of the week’s progress.
Also, a special word of thanks must go to the Monmouthshire Beacon, who were kind enough to feature our excavation last week. Their coverage has proven tremendously valuable in terms of raising awareness of the excavation, and increasing our volunteer base. We had our first debutant archaeologist today, who seemed to enjoy himself, with many more expected to join us during the week. It is always our goal to make opportunities for people to engage with field archaeology, and the Beacon have really helped us with that objective this year.
As for today, our team of nine had a busy day getting into some specific targets, and great progress had been made. Readers familiar with the site might remember that on the south west facing side of the site, two ‘buttress’ style features had been identified toward the end of the last season of excavations, but we had run out of time to clarify just what they were. Working closely on these features today, it would that one of the two features is part of a larger porch like structure. A significant external floor surface seems to have been revealed, with a potential third external wall. However, time and light issues meant we will be returning to that feature tomorrow.
Elsewhere, the site remains a work in progress. We seem to have identified a new internal floor surface, undercutting our flagstone floors by some depth. However, we will need to expand our section to see how consistent a feature this is. Equally, we have found no dating evidence from this earlier floor surface, which would certainly help in our understanding of the site.
Towards the rear of the building, where we had found a large retaining wall, and an uneven flagstone surface, we have now uncovered a better preserved section of flooring. There appears now to be a squared off section, with some well finished stone work, in the centre of the rubble surface. This will need to be expanded tomorrow to reveal the true extent and quality of the feature, but it does now appear that the rear of the building has some equally well defined external features, to match those found inside, and to the front of the structure.
All good progress then on day one. While nothing particularly conclusive has come out of the ground, we definitely have some attractive new features, which will become the focus of activities in the morning.
Keep the fingers crossed for more dry weather!
A quick apology though. The senior members of the team are all staying on site this year, and in our collective wisdom, we managed to leave our camera download cables at another house. As a result, we can’t share any images from the site today, and probably tomorrow, but hopefully by Wednesday evening, we’ll be able to give a full image based break down of the week’s progress.
Also, a special word of thanks must go to the Monmouthshire Beacon, who were kind enough to feature our excavation last week. Their coverage has proven tremendously valuable in terms of raising awareness of the excavation, and increasing our volunteer base. We had our first debutant archaeologist today, who seemed to enjoy himself, with many more expected to join us during the week. It is always our goal to make opportunities for people to engage with field archaeology, and the Beacon have really helped us with that objective this year.
As for today, our team of nine had a busy day getting into some specific targets, and great progress had been made. Readers familiar with the site might remember that on the south west facing side of the site, two ‘buttress’ style features had been identified toward the end of the last season of excavations, but we had run out of time to clarify just what they were. Working closely on these features today, it would that one of the two features is part of a larger porch like structure. A significant external floor surface seems to have been revealed, with a potential third external wall. However, time and light issues meant we will be returning to that feature tomorrow.
Elsewhere, the site remains a work in progress. We seem to have identified a new internal floor surface, undercutting our flagstone floors by some depth. However, we will need to expand our section to see how consistent a feature this is. Equally, we have found no dating evidence from this earlier floor surface, which would certainly help in our understanding of the site.
Towards the rear of the building, where we had found a large retaining wall, and an uneven flagstone surface, we have now uncovered a better preserved section of flooring. There appears now to be a squared off section, with some well finished stone work, in the centre of the rubble surface. This will need to be expanded tomorrow to reveal the true extent and quality of the feature, but it does now appear that the rear of the building has some equally well defined external features, to match those found inside, and to the front of the structure.
All good progress then on day one. While nothing particularly conclusive has come out of the ground, we definitely have some attractive new features, which will become the focus of activities in the morning.
Keep the fingers crossed for more dry weather!