Day 9 – Thirlestane Barrows – Full of Surprises

Trench 5 was so full of surprises that the dreich weather went completely unnoticed.

The first surprise was the reappearance of Charlie. Watching progress on the internet had proved too frustrating, so his dad Joe brought him back – and he wasn’t disappointed!

(see video below:)

In Trench 5 we concentrated on the soil which had been underneath the urn block we had removed yesterday [see Day 8 blog]. The first photo above shows the base of 2 stone piles which had been beside the pot rim. (to be explained later…)

So that we knew what to look for [above]. Amanda showed us a piece of skull.

Ross cleaned the area around the big flat stone – finding “millions” of bone fragments, likely to have been flicked to this side by a plough.

Tamsin showed us the time capsule which was laid for future excavators to discover in Trench 4.

It includes a 5p coin from 2022, a sample card showing the date of excavation and name of GUARD Archaeology. She was then elected to ceremoniously start the backfill.

Back in Trench 5, Charlie and Michelle carefully trowelled through the loose soil and found many more burnt one fragments.

Cameron and Joe continued to trace the different kinds of soil in the slot in the north west side of the trench.

Malcolm and Rob recorded the section of the plough scar against the north edge.

And Cherry resumed her spoil clearing in the slot through the stones in the south east corner.

David organised the turf to ease the job of relaying it.

The site was cleaned up for final photographing.

Areas of orange coloured silty/clay show up around some of the central area, and in the pit [top right in photo]. Similar areas were found in sections of both large trenches.

Jim (the farmer) dropped by again to find out how we were getting on. He told us that it used to be thought that deeper ploughing brought up nutrients (it doesn’t). His modern plough only digs to a depth of 9 inches – “no need to dig deeper”.

James Gordon also appeared on site. It was he who first spotted the crop marks [see Day 1 for info on crop marks] from the slopes of Whitslade Hill – you can see it in the background of the video below:

James stayed on as new discoveries came to light.

The big flat stone Jim had begun to uncover a few days ago, turned out to be a lot bigger than expected.

Being so close to the centre, with an accompanying pile of stones close by, and having found a circular, probable burial pit (visible in top right of picture) – everything pointed to this being another burial site.

With surrounding soil removed, the stone was ready to be lifted…

Leveraging the stone began the process,

but more muscle power was required.

And for the first time in perhaps 4000 years, the cremated remains saw daylight…

Amanda said she had never seen such ‘a huge deposit’. For those of us who hadn’t excavated a burial site before it was an unforgettable experience.

This large piece of burnt pot was found under the stone. Other pottery fragments were mixed in with the loose bones.

With only half an hour left before the end of the day, Amanda carefully placed the loose bones and pot pieces into sample bags.

She pointed out a lower mandible

A vertibra

A pubic symphysis

Other large bones included pieces of ribs, skull, leg, and arm joints and the orbit of an eye socket – all surviving because the cremation had not been hot enough to reduce them to powder.

As Amanda retrieved the bones, another team began working to lift the large stones in the neighbouring stone pile.

There were stones under stones with pieces of bone.

…and then a large piece of pot under the stone – with a dark, flat stone underneath them all…

Once the final big stone had been carefully lifted away, parts of another pot/urn was revealed! This would need careful excavation – and more time than we had today.

Another large piece of pot was removed…

and safely sealed in another sample bag.

As Tamsin had surmised, this was not just a tomb but a mausoleum for probably many generations of which post-excavation analysis will tell us more.

Everyone wanted to continue but, due to budget constraints, we had to call it a day. But we left on a high. As Rob commented “it’s better to go away wanting more”!