Good weather for ducks!

Rachel writes:

Today started off okay - my group began by trowelling the trench that was dug on Tuesday and just generally making it neater, and picking up any finds that were there along the way. After a break we started on the context sheets, and then the rain began. By lunch both the sheets and us were a bit soggy!
After lunch my group had a go at taking levels, which involved measuring the ground at different points. This was fun, even if we did have trouble trying to get it to focus and reading the numbers at first. People passing by seemed to be interested in what we were doing and many stopped to ask questions.
At one point two ducks also wandered onto the site. All in all it was an enjoyable, if rather rainy day on the site.


Jonathan writes:

The day started off troweling through the back fill. This continued throughout the day and was interspersed with other tasks such as levelling in the afternoon. The weather was a bit temperamental, raining at the most unfortunate times (such as trying to fill in context sheets).
Today's finds were a bit sparse, but there were some intriguing things including a whole glass bottle and a metal ring. Another find was a bit mysterious; interpretations of it changed - first it was thought to be bone, but then when I asked someone else they said it was a boar tusk. Whatever it is, it certainly won 'best find of the day.'

Michael D writes:

So we had our second day on site today, and in my group we did a variety of different things. We gradually reduced the height of the baulk inbetween two neighbouring sondages so we could carefully look for any finds. Once the layer was levelled out we then got to practice trowelling, a technique used in archaeology where you carefully scrape off all the topsoil to display the earth below, and hopefully expose any changes in the colour of the soil or materials within. We also worked through our context sheets, an important part of any archaeological dig. All in all, an interesting day with quite a few finds; perhaps the most interesting for my group was a glass bottle, still intact, from the 19th Century. The weather could have been better, but then again, it could have been much worse. I guess we should be thankful for that!