‘Glowering’ is the only word that can describe what the weather on the horizon was like – we just didn’t know what to expect!
It turned out to be grey kind of a start with a wind from the east today – but we’re not complaining – it was dry!
Today was all about mattocking – and hoeing – and shovelling – and bucket filling – and barrowing! But as the afternoon arrived, we felt that the earth was ready to reveal something…
See video below:
Everyone was feeling their hoeing and shovelling muscles, so it was with some relief after lunch that we were told just one more ‘sweep’ with the hoes and that would be us!
…and it was worth it!
The corner of a rectilinear ditch was revealed – see the guide in green below.
A feature of soil with no stones stood out to the immediate east of the rectilinear ditch (in orange).
And a *very rough* idea of a central area is outlined in blue – requiring further cleaning.
Tamsin kindly helped our understanding of what the trench was showing us, with a sketch for teaching purposes:
At this stage, Lauren and Tamsin took photos for their records (using metre sticks).
Then Michelle helped Lauren record levels of the corners and features with the survey kit.
And work in the trench itself recommenced. Further hoeing to clean the centre area and some mattocking in the ditch.
The feature to the immediate east of the rectilinear ditch was trowelled to reveal different levels of soil.
Tamsin explained that this was likely to be a ‘tree bowl’. This is created when a tree falls causing the roots to lift up. This creates movement in the soil and a ‘scoop’ underneath. Geology gets brought up with it, and top soil can also be taken down with ‘redeposited natural’ now sitting on top.
Three sample bags of the different types of soil were collected from this quarter section slot – orange subsoil and a darker gravel.
The 1m section of rectilinear ditch proved to be both wider and deeper than first anticipated – the infill feeling quite different to the surrounding stony soil. Some organic matter was collected from the bottom of the ditch along with other soil samples.
The internal features to be excavated:
All too soon it was time to pack up, it was with some reluctance that we left Trench 4 today.
It was Sam’s last day! View his video:
