Community Dig – Day 5 – Looking for a date?
Well I’m pleased to announce that Trench 1 has redeemed itself. It’s an effort now to get in and out of our trench and by first tea break the only signs of life were the frequent shovels of soil coming from seemingly nowhere into our buckets on the topside of the trench.
Julia had a very frustrating morning; she thought she had hit the natural. It was just like being at the beach for her, lovely soft reddish sand. I, on the other hand had to take out the rest of my trench to join it up to the wall separating Victory Field and Barton Farm. More clay hacking for me. For three days now we had been shovelling and hacking clay with a few bits of bone and flint here and there but nothing to date any of our layers! No coins, no pottery, no jewellery. By now even the Custard Creams and Bourbons weren’t bringing us any comfort.
Oh what a difference an hour makes in archaeology! By 2pm Julia’s ‘natural’ sand was showing signs of life. Stones started to appear at the far end of her sondage – in a straight line. “Roy!” The Boss came over to inspect. “I’ve got a wall! See my Iron Age round house is down there,” said Julia. “Oh Julia, your imagination. Find me some pottery and then I might start to believe you,” said Roy. Roy walked off to survey Victory Field.
Five minutes later Julia and I stood by the trench watching Roy walk towards us. Julia held out her hand and showed Roy a small piece of thick, coarse, black pottery with white shell crushed into the clay that could just be Iron Age. “Will pottery from in the stones do?” asked Julia, looking just a little smug.