Day 4: Keeping busy whilst the rain pours…

Jake reports on Team B… Unfortunately the weather got the best of us today and excavation of both trenches 4 and 8 wasn't possible. So instead we sheltered in the pavilion from the rain while much deliberation ensued on what tasks were to be completed in the morning. The decision was made that Team B would bag the finds that have already been discovered so far in this year’s excavations until break time. After a very cold break Team B were then tasked to clean some finds. As it was Team B's half day [ahem, study day! Ed.] we were able to retreat to the warmth of our own homes in the afternoon.

Happy diggers keeping busy out of the rain!

A good selection of (now clean) pottery and building material!

James enjoys finds washing… We joined the excavation just after lunch to find a collection of cold archaeologists trying to warm themselves up in the pavilion. The harsh and consistent morning rain had flooded the trenches and so we were forced to briefly abandon them, instead of digging we cleaned and washed some of the finds from the Park. We enjoyed the therapeutic cleaning of a range of pottery and a wide selection of animal bone in all kinds of shapes and sizes. As we left, we briefly glanced into the depths of our trench. Now we will spend most of the night looking forward to the imminent mud bath tomorrow, fun!

Pottery, animal bone and building material all nice and clean!

Jack… Today it was raining hard so work in the trenches was put on hold. This threw off our work and I wasn't sure what to expect for the day without working in our deep and muddy ditch. We were sent to the Grosvenor Museum and brought back some finds from the park excavations that still needed to be cleaned. This was fine despite the rain as it was less heavy than before. After getting the finds and some site planning equipment we returned to the park Pavilion. We also had a short lecture from Jane on Public Archaeology in the morning, and this broadened my perspective on how important public outreach can be in spreading archaeological knowledge. This left us with cleaning the finds, which was enjoyable as it was relatively straightforward as a task.