After driving through some pretty heavy showers with splendid splashes through floods and puddles to get on site this morning, the rain stopped and blessed us with a good dry spell!
Ronan showed us the map regression that was undertaken by GUARD Archaeology before commencing the excavation, maps of the location of various dates shown below.
This confirms the previous land use and also that no known features are recorded at the precise locations of the two trenches.
The features inside the ditch in the trench were confirmed as grave plots and careful cleaning continued after lunchtime. [above]
Grid lines were used to identify locations of soil samples taken. Whilst no human remains were found, there was organic matter sampled which will be good evidence to use in establishing dates.
There was similar botanical matter found in the ditches which will show what was growing at the time when it was a barrow in the landscape.
A section drawing of the rectilinear ditch was undertaken, though the rainy conditions weren’t ideal!
Meanwhile, the more ‘mature’ contingent were on cleaning and sieving duties. [above] Eternally optimistic, but yet to discover any finds, Bill noted that this was down to the skill of the diggers in the trench! However Neil pointed out that we had no finds whilst digging either!
The rain brought about the use of some good Scots vocabulary – word such as ‘dreich’, ‘drookit’, ‘claggy’ and ‘clarty’ described the conditions well. And Neil declared that he hadn’t felt so tall (with all the mud on his boots) since his platform days in the 1970s!
David D did a grand job of clearing the mud from the ‘good sward’, ensuring the site was kept as clean as possible, even under these conditions today. Unfortunately we reached the point at which we had to stop before the rain actually started doing more damage than good to the archaeology. It was still determined that we had made great progress today! See Tamsin’s update for Robin below:
It was Lucie’s last day today – her enthusiasm with a hoe, mattock or shovel was commendable!
All the very best with your prelims Lucie and thank you for all your hard work (we’d still be trying to reach the subsoil if it weren’t for you!)
Here is Lucie’s interview, and view her video below:
