Half way through in the corner of the cramped…

Katie sums up on Friday the 18th:

I am writing this after having a wonderful relaxing soak in the bath to ease my aching muscles and to wash the dirt off, while sat in a very comfortable armchair watching Doctor Who.

Although the weather was overcast today, it was quite pleasant to us and allowed us to work on the site for the entire day, unlike yesterday where the weather had us staying in the mess room washing the bricks from the hearth and weighing the lead shot so far found on site.

This morning Tom and I were charged with setting up the dumpy level to record some levels in the feature that Tom had been excavating earlier in the week. This consisted of setting the dumpy level up so that it was level, which can be much more complicated than it looks. We then took the backsight then the foresights and calculated the reduced levels to record on the plan.

Once this was done we were tasked with trowelling the soil from the surface of the far corner of the trench. This task took up the rest of the day, even after we were joined by other people, making the corner very cramped as we were all nearly sitting on each other’s laps. This corner proved quite fruitful with finds and for me produced a piece of possible Roman pottery, many pieces of bone, including a fish spine and some purple glazed pottery. Some of the other finds from this corner include some fine examples of Cistercian Ware.

After the second week of digging and being half way through, the site is now unrecognisable from the site we started on last Tuesday and I am looking forward to getting stuck into more archaeology come Monday morning.

Katie shows off pottery from the 'cramped corner' of the trench.