CAER: Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project

Today started off with me and Dani finding a grid reference for what we originally thought was a grave site but after excavating it, it turned out not to be, but there was an interesting piece of pottery!  I was then put onto another part of the site to help with the excavation of a large area. There were five of us working on different sections with me on the far right as you looked at the site. This area turned out to be a little treasure-trove of finds with their being about four finds trays worth of artefacts that came out of it, with the centrepiece of these being a comb that was found and a piece of tile, on which you can see still see all of the decoration that was on it. What was surprising as well was the amount of bone that seemed to be coming from here, it seemed to be every other trowel full we were uncovering a new piece. I was also on public archaeology in the afternoon which gave me a chance to talk to some people from Australia who were very intrigued about...

Having reached the end of the second week on site and had a full week of excavation people have started having their own areas of excavation. Some of us have been working on one area for the week, this has been rewarding as I have been able to see the hole grow and the interpretation of it develop as new finds and features were uncovered. This particular hole has produced lots of animal bone, including two large vertebrae, a large fragment of glazed pottery and some other small finds. The main find within this hole though is a stone/brick lined drainage channel. Next week this area of the trench will be excavated further to look for other medieval features that may appear. This morning group D had their second photography session following the three stages of archaeological photography we produced some pictures of features and stratigraphy that can be added to the archaeological record of the site. The three stages being: 1)       Frame the photo (Pu...

Lauren makes an impact on the public: Today started off for our group with our 2nd crash course in archaeological photography - safe to say we all know the 3 steps by heart now! The afternoon was more eventful as lots of members of the public were intrigued by our finds from the day, and I blew one ladies mind by telling her I was scraping 400 year old poo out of a drain (never heard anyone so excited about excrement!). Find of the day has to go to Marc who found a lovely little bronze belt buckle, almost thrown away however as we initially thought it was green plastic - oops! Lovely weather, lovely day! Chris has trench fever: By the end of day 8 in the big brother trench things are taking a slight turn to the surreal with Alan Partridge quotes flying and many people seeming to be on the edge of delirium. However the day does not start this way it starts with another lesson in site photography this time focusing on particular contexts. The lesson is bot...

R hianna finds bones and bricks: The day started with a downpour of rain making it impossible to continue with our work. This meant we could go home for a couple of hours, which was good for me as I was already soaked through from walking there. Finally the rain stopped and we returned to a waterlogged site, so we had to work as a team to remove all the water. This was done in a conveyer line system where we were passing buckets to each other and by using planks to reach them like some sort of P.E. game. Although I wasn’t very good at this task as I spilt most of the water on other people and on the ground... The last part of the day we continued on with our previous work where I found even more bones and a lot of brick work. We are going to connect this with the area next to us to see if we have a wall or not. Also it was my groups turn to talk to the public and we talked to a nice group of people who were interested in what we had uncovered, what we found and what time period...

Michael describes finding the wrong type of bone? Today saw the true beginnings of archaeological excavation on the site itself. Areas such as the supposed burial area yielded bone finds, but not the type bones that were believed to be buried there. As for myself, today, I, and other members of my group, continued to place grid points around the outside of the excavation site. Once this was completed, we were instructed to construct a plan drawing, by using a 1 meter grid square, of an area that had not been planned during previous excavations. This was easily accomplished after the sense of scale had been established by my group. After the plans were complete, my group then set about utilising the dumpy level in order to calculate the different stratigraphic levels of the site. After lunch, my group was given the task to remove a layer at the edge of the site, which was believed to contain the continuation of the wall that had been uncovered in other areas in previous years. ...