Day 20: Friday the 8th of July

Bloggers: Nat and Rachael.

The weather is less than desirable today, and a serious amount of rain dampened the spirits of the diggers. However, spirits were lifted by chip Friday, and the silence was only broken by the odd joke about cholesterol. Christian raised objections about the immensely 'soggy' state of the chips, but being from Down Under he clearly wasn't familiar with this particular English delicacy and was shouted down by the other students.

Trench update: Work continues over at the long gallery under the supervision of Charlie Hay.

Charlie shows his archaeoligcal prowess with his best impersonation of Riker

Planning is continuing in trench 21, while another fireplace has been excavated in trench 22. All the soil taken out of the long gallery trenches is being sieved to ensure that small fragments of pottery and other archaeological artefacts are retrieved.

Today's excavation in trench 20 has uncovered a linear feature between the two postulated walls described yesterday. It has been found at the base of the 1970s' trench and it is currently unknown whether it was found during that phase of excavation. However, the feature continues into the trench 20 extension; hopefully the feature remains undisturbed and it will yield some interesting information about its function and date.

Interview:  Ian is our resident Scot who definitely bears no resemblance to Terry Pratchett.

He studies archaeology part-time at Sheffield whilst simultaneously enjoying his retirement.  His dream dig involves digging somewhere 'impossible' - namely, a Viking boat burial in the sun, somewhere near Russia (that small geographic entity).  His highlight of the dig so far is being on finds whilst outdoor conditions vaguely resembled the Somme, and his favourite find is an unused musket ball. 

Find of the Day: A small glass sherd possibly dating from the Tudor Period, due to its 'diamond' shape and colour, but this will need to be confirmed later, after washing and analysis by a glass specialist.

Alex boasted the 'creation' of the day, as he attempted to patent the levitating tree:

All in all, Friday was a fitting end to the week, with our reward being a pint down the pub to celebrate Christian's birthday.

Day 19: Thursday the 7th of July

Bloggers: Rachael and Kate 'the Goth' B.

The following quote suitably sums up conditions today:

"The dust is murdering everyone on site." Charles Hay, 2011.

Long Gallery Update

Matt (ably assisted by Jon) had excavated a sondage (a small area of excavation inside a larger trench to aid investigation of specific features or areas) in trench 22 yesterday, and he is now recording it by producing section drawings.

Jon is measuring the section of the sondage, so that Matt can draw it

The sondage shows that the flagstone floor within the 19th century houses were laid after the pottery kilns were in use, because demolition material from the kiln can be seen in the section. Elsewhere in trench 22, the surface was being trowelled back to reveal more flagstones, which seem to pre-date those found elsewhere in the long gallery, as they continue underneath a wall of one of the cottages. Another fireplace belonging to one of the cottages was also revealed today.

Trowelling in trench 22

Trench 21 is now finished, and trench 19 is being cleaned back again, in preparation for further recording through drawing and photography.

Charlie's beard says "Mnnphmnnnarghphnmmhph"

Trench 20 Update

In trench 20, the southern extension has been mattocked down to the same level as the rest of the trench.

Nat LOVES mattocking

Finds from the extension include ceramics, animal bones and lots of clay pipe. Also, Melissa and Laurel have been cleaning a feature in the western end of the trench which is suspected to be a second wall and possible foundation cut.

And here we have a series of small walls...

Some serious spoil heap management has been undertaken...

Today's Interview

Melissa

So, what university are you from?

I'm from the University of Warwick.

What area of archaeology do you study?

I don't, I'm actually a dirty scientist, studying biology.

What area of archaeology interests you then?

I hope to go into forensic archaeology, and they require excavation experience which is why I'm here.

What kind of site would you hope to work on?

A mass grave.

What has been your find of the day?

Definitely a takeaway wrapper!

Thanks to Melissa for being an obliging interviewee!

This week has also seen the archaeobotany field school take place, and once again flotation has been continuing in the archaeology grotto...

Is this a side effect of flotation? We think so...

Find Of The Day

Small bone needle from Trench 22 

Quote Of The Day

Matt: "HOLY SONDAGE BATMAN!"

Day 18: Wednesday the 6th of July

Bloggers: Rachael and Rosalind.

Heavy rain today did not dampen the spirits of our intrepid archaeologists!

Over in Trench 22, lots of kiln furniture has been uncovered. Kiln furniture is the material inside a kiln on which ceramics are placed to be fired. Sometimes fragments of pottery can be found stuck to it, which is useful in identifying its usage.




Kiln furniture and brick from Trench 22

In Trench 20, the main focus of the day was exposing a deposit of stones that runs through the trench, which may be part of a wall.

Uncovering the stones was a tough operation

Spoons were put to a rather original use in this trench:



There was a noted absence of spoons for tea and coffee at the mid-morning break

 Spoons are used for getting to the small spaces between the stones to clean out the loose soil. Suspicion was raised when Lauren's section of stones were cleaner than everyone else's:



Exhibit A: Lauren's clean stones (right)

After a thorough investigation by Alvaro, she was accused of using her gloves to wipe the stones clean!

Today we interviewed Jane...

So why did you come to Manor Lodge?

I have a long association with the site and wanted to find out more about it. I was the headteacher of the primary school next door and we did lots of activities with children around the Lodge. I also help out with the flower displays, particularly the Tudor Herb Garden. I even saw an opera about Mary, Queen of Scots performed here by a local theatre group.

What is your interest in archaeology?

I'm retired now, so I like to take part when I can. I was also here last year with a group of friends, which was lovely.

What do you think of the work being done to the site?

When I worked at the school the park was largely wasteland, so it's nice to see it being looked after and presented as an educational site.

Thanks, Jane.

And finally, Hollywood came to Manor Lodge today when filmmaker Sean arrived to create a short film about the Department of Archaeology at Sheffield University. The process included interviewing some of our students:

After 10 takes, Kate's hand was permanently stuck in that position

When they become famous in the future, remember you heard about them here first!

Day 17: Tuesday the 5th of July

Bloggers: Kate S. and Rachael.

It was a dark and stormy summer night and Kate tossed and turned in her bed, beset by a terrible nightmare that left her cold to the bone.

"Kate!" Said Vicky in a sagely voice, "you have been chosen from many to write the blog of tomorrow. Come," she boomed, turning to the basement, "we have much to do."

Kate woke with a shout, her hands clutched the duvet in terror as she glanced about the room.
"What a terrible dream..." She mumbled, rolling over and falling back to sweet, undisturbed sleep...

The next day ...

"Noooooooo!"

Update on Trench 22 - the extension that was pictured yesterday is in the process of being planned. Progress is quick and there is plenty of troweling going on in Trench 21 beside it, revealing a lovely piece of worked scapula:

 
 Which is rivalling a find from Trench 20 as the find of the day...

This piece of pottery shows part of a small man holding what looks like a little lantern. It's very sweet and is drawing a lot of attention, especially from Vicky who suggested it might be a man holding a model house.

Trench 20 has also provided a brilliant example of Tudor tin-glazed pottery believed to be from the 16th Century. This kind of ceramic is identifiable by its very thin, flakey glaze that is almost duck egg blue in colour. The fabric is also a distinct yellow.

Today we also continued the interviews! (Which have become markedly more feared in Huw's absence).

We started with Kaitlin...

Kaitlin is a fourth year anthropology student from Southern California, which is considerably hotter than England (allegedly).

So Kaitlin, why did you chose to come to England and Sheffield Manor Lodge?

I heard about the dig on a website and was drawn in by the history of the site, particularly its connection with Mary Queen of Scots. I'm very interested in European history and this trip also allowed me to visit England for the first time!

What inspired you to become an archaeologist?

I was origionally inspired by Indiana Jones but as I grew older my motivations became more academic.

Shame, really!

Our next target was Rosalind, a second year archaeology student from Cambridge!

Hey Rosalind! What made you want to come to Manor Lodge?

It allowed me to take part in an archaeological excavation as well as attending a short osteoarchaeology course at Sheffield University, which was great!

What sort of things did you learn on your course?

We went through all the bones of the adult and juvenile skeletons and learnt about ageing juveniles and sexing and ageing adults, as well as the different pathologies that you can see on bones.

Did this cater to your particular interests?

I really love the medieval period but detest the Romans, which is terrible because I work in a Roman Villa!

Lastly, the flotation samples collected by Michael earlier on in the day were hung from the ceiling of the basement to dry.


Starting a trend for archaeological Christmas decorations

 Thus ended Kate's afternoon on the blog, which was all together less terrifiying than she dreamt!

Day 16: Monday the 4th of July

Bloggers: Rachael and Cath.

American Independence Day was celebrated in true archaeological style with the liberation of additional space in trench 20 and 22.


The northward extension of trench 22 shows the predicted continuation of the flagstones from the previously excavated area.



Trench 21

 The discovery of burnt material on the floor of trench 21, including some animal bone, could suggest the location of a fireplace. Lowering this trench to the same level as trench 22 revealed more of the destruction layer previously found.


Extension of trench 20.

The dark soil on which the students are standing shows the southern extension of the trench. This has been extended to find whether or not the wall revealed to the north continues towards the road. The uncovering of turf from this trench yielded some interesting finds:

A headless horseman from the extension in trench 20. This is likely to be a fairly recent children's toy.

 Today we also had some new volunteers who came along to see how they liked archaeology. Friends Trish Neilson and Helen Turner decided to come after hearing about the dig at a Sheffield University archaeology talk about the site. We asked:

Why did you decide to come on the dig?

Because we don't get much opportunity to try anything new and this seemed perfect.

Are you enjoying the day so far?

Yes! It's nice to get away from having a full time job and get mucky for the day.

FIND OF THE DAY!!



Bone comb found in extension of trench 22. This is probably related to the 19th century occupation of cottages in the long gallery.

Day 15: Friday the 1st of July

Washed, labelled, and bagged finds were today carefully placed into an archival system:

... and it was strongly implied that they should remain as such:

With today being chip friday, photographers from the BBC's Planet Earth attended to become the first wildlife photography team to document an archaeologist feeding frenzy:

Archaeologists can smell fish and chips from up to three trenches away ...

... and, armed with a proper northern condiment...

... can strip a box of fish and chips to the bone before you can say 'clay pipe'.

In other news, there was concern for Kate after it appeared that her eyes had become replaced with flowers:

And finally:

After being attacked by assistant site director Vicky ...

... the blogger will be absent for a week. In the meantime, the blog will pass into the capable hands of Rachael!

Day 14: Thursday the 30th of June

Territorial expansion: the United Nations council met today to discuss the worrying expansionistic policies of trench supervisor Charlie Hay. Mr. Hay, operating under the nom de guerre Charles the Beardy, has aggressively begun excavations in a new section of the long gallery. He has declared the area an independent archaeological state, and named his new republic 'trench 22'.

Charles the Beardy loves the smell of ceramics in the morning

Measuring and drawing the new trench.

Charlie's battle plans were well formulated

This photograph of trench 22 probably shows the wall between two cottages (running horizontally), and the two fireplaces belonging to the houses (top and bottom) which would likely have shared a chimney.

A planning frame, to faciliate drawing features - the squares correspond to squares on graph paper

A member of Charlie's militia ...

... engaged in guerilla archaeology in neighbouring trench 19.

 And now for something completely different ...

Work continued in trench 20, and just out of shot ...

... Alvaro resolved to supplement his income by engaging in some metalsmithing

Christian and Callum measuring and drawing

Archaeological troweling drills underway

Alvaro's wheelbarrow spoil heap challenge was well underway, and the league table at the moment is as follows:


Place Competitor High Score
1st.....Catherine... 7.5...........
2nd....Liam.......... 7.0...........
3rd....Matt............ 6.5...........
4th....Lauren.........6.0..........
5th....Alvaro......... 6.0.........
6th....Rachael........5.5..........

See work experience volunteer Liam's second-placed effort:

Modern art of the day - volume two:

Clay cat - (c) Vicky Crewe. The smiling cat symbolises the archaeological joy within us all.

And finally...

Today's top trump: