Archaeology Live! 2010 - Site Diary (Weeks 7-12)

[YAT]

WEEK 7

For weeks 1-6 look here -
yorkdig.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=photos&action=display&thread=390

Showers! quite a lot of showers, sometimes very heavy. This week was very much a case of getting outside when the weather let us (especially towards the end of the week). Overall I think we had the same amount of time on site, just a bit jumbled up from the normal order. On Friday the sun made a big effort to try and get out for the BBQ!

Ben and his team have been a bit more spread out this week. There are some areas where we cannot go any deeper until the archaeology around features has been reduced - we don't want people in holes that are too deep. His group are looking at more Viking and medieval features next to the well, these are very complicated in the picture below.


The big cut that was being recorded in the entry for last week has now been expanded. Beneath it we have a, possibly, Roman feature. This has an entrance with stone foundations on either side and appears to have been robbed out during the medieval period. Hopefully we will find out more about it by the end of the summer season.


Of course there is lots of digging and recording before we get there. Just at the top right of the picture below is part of the medieval section of Haver Lane. This is another crucial part of the site that we want some answers on by the end of summer.


Elena appears to be finding the most complicated archaeology in her section. Every time we investigate what we think is a relatively simple feature it turns out to be a real puzzler. The pit in the picture below started out as a simple pit, but there now seems to be a sequence of features below and around that are making it a lot more difficult than it seems.


It is lucky that we have Scott on the case to help us out when we need something sorted! (He has actually done a fantastic job on a very long sequence of intercut features where he is working)


Artemi has taken advantage of the wet soil to get into the backfills above the ovens in his area. The right hand side of this picture shows burnt daub which may be the initial backfilling/demolition of a medieval oven.


The team have to work really quickly to record and excavate as the soils will dry very quickly with a little bit of sunshine and a light breeze!



Thank you to the team for some really good progress in what were not the best conditions.


Yes - proof that you can dig and look glamorous in muddy conditions!

[YAT]

WEEK 8

Last weekend the site hosted an Introduction to Fieldwork training weekend. We had a really good team of trainees working with Ben, Artemi and Gary so the weekend was a lot of fun for all involved.

Trainees get as much of an overview of the whole archaeological process as possible within the time allowed and it is useful for those who cannot make a full week or taster course during weekdays. The October weekend is pretty much full, but check the web pages for when we announce the dates for 2011 -
www.dighungate.com/content.asp?ID=75

Ben and his trainees have made a lot of progress over the past week. The big possible Roman feature is waiting whilst Elena and her team get the North side sorted, but everything else has moved on at a good pace. The complicated pits in the foreground of this picture are starting to be resolved and soon we will be able to start up again on looking at the medieval barrel well which is just beyond.


We also made a start on looking for the gutter/drain to the south of medieval Haver Lane. This has been seen further towards the street front and is most probably an expansion of a Viking feature. Once we get the area clean and see its location we will hopefully be able to get some datable find from inside.


Elena and her team have been moving an awful lot of soil in relation the the feature which extends into the area looked after by Ben. You can see from the photo below that the feature survives to a greater depth than where Ben has been working - which means they have huge amount of backfill to shift.


In the rest of this area the team have continued with different clusters of inter-cut pits that date from the Viking and medieval periods. Because these pits cut into eachother it can be very difficult to get the exact sequence, but lots of careful cleaning and recording helps.


Artemi and his trainees are still working on features which spread across the whole of his area, and still date from the Roman all the way through to the medieval period! He has a real mix of what both Elena and Ben have been excavating, but further complicated by being massively truncated during the 1950's construction of the Territorial Army base.


After you have finished digging each of the backfill in these features you then have to record the cut the they went into.


Elsewhere on Block H the commercial team have had a breakthrough regarding the striped deposits on the Viking plots facing Hunggate. We are finally starting to get evidence of structures within them, but not necessarily what people would expect. We are finding more, and more substantial, hearth type structures within the stripes that may give some idea of what was being done whilst they were built up. In the picture below you can see the burnt daub structure which may be where some of the burnt daub within the stripes comes from. This had burnt grain associated with it, but may not mean that it was specifically for grain drying.... we will see what we get as we continue in this part of the site.


Thank you to the team for a great week!


Once again we have found another mini (hand sized) archaeologist

[YAT]

WEEK 9

Lots of rain at the start of this week!.... Lots and lots of rain. We had a good Monday morning but then were pretty much stuck inside until Tuesday afternoon. However, we made sure that we had plenty of time outside during the rest of the week.

Ben and his team took advantage of the slightly damper soil to look at the far North corner of his area. They cleaned back and highlighted feature that cut into the earlier Roman archaeology/soil. As soon as this was done they then recorded them whilst they were still visible.


On the South side of Haver lane the gutter/ditch has really come on leaps and bounds, though a huge pit below the road has made it mare difficult to work out in some areas. You can see in the picture below where the stone from the road make up deposits is sinking into the earlier pit.


Elena and her group have nearly caught up with the huge feature which extends from the west. Once this is finished both she and Ben can work together on the final recording of the cut and anything earlier.


Her team have also looked at investigating a stone structure that may be the foundation for something Roman. We will get a better idea of its true date when we have a chance to see the finds within it rather than just limestone fragments.


The sequence of pits to the south-east has finally started to become clear. It is now a case of finishing the latest fill and cut excavation, tidying up the records and the looking ate the archaeology below. During the past week or so her team have had some very difficult archaeology to deal with and have done a great job in sorting it all out.


Artemi and his team had the most cleaning up to do after the rain. His part of the site suffers the most when we have heavy showers and rain as it is the lowest part we are working on with the trainees.


Once the sun came out it was relatively easy to carry on working on wet soil so some of the more discreet archaeology was worked on in these favourable conditions.


The group did really well this week. They coped with a very wet start, cleaning up after wards, and then a lot of hard work taking advantage of damp soil. Thank you

[YAT]

WEEK 10

We had some really bright sunshine this week! You can see from the pictures that it is at a lower angle, which is not great when it dazzles you!

Ben and his team have carries on with work on the road and barrel well. Setting up the planning over the well can be pretty difficult, but if you have a good team working on it then everything can be sorted out. Managing the water in this feature is going to be the biggest issue from now on.


Finding the bottom of the barrel (and that there was another barrel beneath) involved using a special type of probe....... and yes the water was cold and very smelly!


As Ben and Elena have been working on a feature across both areas it has been important to make sure that the paperwork works when put together. Don't worry, Elena did not hit Ben with the ruler.


Elena And her trainees have, just about, finished at the back end of the large feature. You can see from the picture below what the layout of the structure is. There is a little more to come out on the left hand side, but the shape is pretty much there. The current theory is that it may be a mausoleum type of structure that has been robbed out at a later date, but until we dig the full feature we cannot be sure.


Elsewhere her team have continued with complex pits and some more subtle features like the one below. This cuts into the Roman terrace, but was difficult to see as it was almost the same colour.


Artemi has been all over his area during the past week. We have been looking at the last of the obviously medieval features that lock the Viking archaeology below. Sometimes it is very difficult the get an accurate date, but when they have lots of finds it makes it a lot easier.


Artemi also has a possible mausoleum structure in his area. This has some burials which line up with it - making us think it is part of a funerary landscape. In one of the burials we have had a very nice pot, though it had been broken by a later intrusive feature.



Once again a big thank you to the team on site this week.


I must have missed the day that Artemi turned into a giant!

[YAT]

WEEK 11

We have had another week of sunshine and showers, but that did not stop the team doing loads of great work on site. Only two weeks left of the summer season.

Ben and his team have been working away around the road, possible mausoleum and well. We are not going to dig any deeper around the well, just cleaning and recording separate elements. When we have had time to clear the archaeology that it has been cut into we may take the lower barrel out, but until then we are being as safe as possible.


Just inside the entrance of the possible mausoleum we have found a stone lined rectangular shaped cut. This had been massively robbed during the Viking period, but may have some significant link with the original structure.


Elena has been working on more pits and features across her area, as well as the back end of the possible mausoleum. A large rectangular cut is now starting to emerge next to this, so maybe there is another which continues beyond the limit of excavation to the northwest.


We have also been finding some post holes beneath the discrete features I mentioned last week. Maybe there was a structure there which we can date from the few bits of pottery we have had.


When the ground is wet we spend a lot of time sorting out safe access into the trench and feature which it contains. Thankfully we have a number of planks and boards that can be used for this.


Artemi has once again been all over his area and you can see that he has had some nice finds! We are not sure what this is, but once it has been stabilised by the team in conservation we will get it x-rayed and looked at by our specialists. I will try to update people as we hear more about the finds from this summer over the coming months.



Thank you to the team - loads of good archaeology on and off site


Some of the team were very interested in levelling this week!

[YAT]

WEEK 12

Well 12 weeks went past at great speed - it seems to go by faster each year we do it!

The weather gods smiled on us for the last week, and to be honest they have smiled on us pretty well for the whole summer. We have had a few bad days/sessions here and there, but have made up for it with lots of interesting things inside and then outside for other parts of the week.

Ben and his trainees started to look at an oven to the south of Haver lane as well as the features within the possible mausoleum. However, the well has proven to be the most photogenic again. We have removed some stakes from around the outside of the construction pit.


The well itself has been cleaned and final recording completed so it can be lifted in the next few weeks (yes we will put some photo updates online!)


Elena has been working on another feature similar to the possible mausoleum. This is in the foreground of this picture, below the one we have seen in previous weeks.


We are also getting a handle on the structure with post holes to the north, but are still unsure of what it was for.


They have also been working on some more medieval pits and an oven - which is being recording in the picture below.


Artemi and his trainees have done a great jobs in sorting out a whole load of archaeology during the last week. This means that we can hold fire in his area until the weather is so poor that we need to move uphill away from the Hungate side of the side when it gets too wet. In the picture below they are emptying a large pit which had been partially excavated during the evaluations back in 2002.


The finds have also been showing up again in this area - but once again we will have to wait and see what the specialists can work out about them.


We have also had some familiar faces coming along for the last week (see all the pictures!).



Also lets not forget all the amazing work done by everybody on the post-excavation processes during summer.



Thanks again to the team who worked during week 12


A big THANK YOU is deserved by everybody involved in Archaeology Live! during 2010 - staff/trainees/placements/on site/off site/ York in general! The list goes on, but basically it is great to have such an amazing team to work with.


We are now going to pick up pace again with the commercial side of the project and try and get some final resolution on what the stripes at the Hungate end of the site are from, what is going on below them and then clearing lots of the the later archaeology to reveal the Roman funerary landscape.




I think I will use the technique demonstrated by Clive - stand back and let the younger ones get on with it!


Cheers,

Toby