Day 17 marks the start of our final week (where does the time go?)!

Updates from Team A and B…

Jake… On a wet first day back excavating after a long weekend, Team B returned to trowelling back the far corner of trench 8 where we left off on Friday. Due to the wet weather it was easier to see the difference in colour of the contexts and we were able to find an orange/red clay that we were looking for on the Friday. After completing that we were tasked with removing a previously recorded feature at the end of the trench. After lunch Team B had a finds session in the pavilion where we looked at separating finds and also looked at how the finds might be interpreted. Team B ended the day cleaning some finds from the excavation.

David… Today marks beginning of the end for the excavation [noooo!] but the A team continued on with the trench. The tasks that we accomplished today were based on cleaning up the trench and creating a section drawing of the new archaeological features. It seems the A team were not affected by the weather, considering the amount of progress we achieved. There were numerous interesting artefacts discovered, such as multiple metal objects and small, perhaps finger, bones. Though we have more to continue with tomorrow as we hope to do as much as we can before the excavation is finished.

Teams A and B at work in Trench 8.

James… The last couple days of the dig are slowly coming to an end. That said, team A is still going strong and planning our last couple of finishing touches. A couple of interesting finds from today's excavation in trench 8 included a mysterious curled iron strip potentially from a dagger sheath or section of armour decoration! Therefore morale is at a high right now; everyone in team A is making the most of what little time we have left and hoping to gather some other great finds!

Alex… The A-team has reached its final week on site beginning with temperamental weather which changed for the better as the day proceeded. Much of the A-teams tasks were to continue on from the previous week clearing the robbers ditch, making section drawings and further cleaning of features. The finds were plentiful in the robbers ditch with an abundance of bone, including pelvis, and even some metal. Overall, the A-team are excited for tomorrow's open day and ready to work hard on the finishing week.

Edward planning and recording a feature in Trench 8.