Today the weather was better than forecast, and we enjoyed an excellent visit by Benhall Primary. As with all the other school parties, the children were first given a careful explanation of the site and the work, before splitting into groups to undertake real archaeological work on designated parts of the site.
A photographer from the East Anglian Daily Times came to catch up with progress, and we were featured on local radio (see link on the video page for today). Exciting new discoveries continue to appear, and there are now 6 confirmed graves being excavated. Others seem to be foreshadowed by discolouration in the soil, and a lot more ground will have to be cleared as the push is 'on' to identify the exact extent of the burials. The traces left deep underground by the three(?) or 4 (?) enclosure ditches are giving Jezz and his professional team more headaches.
A photographer from the East Anglian Daily Times came to catch up with progress, and we were featured on local radio (see link on the video page for today). Exciting new discoveries continue to appear, and there are now 6 confirmed graves being excavated. Others seem to be foreshadowed by discolouration in the soil, and a lot more ground will have to be cleared as the push is 'on' to identify the exact extent of the burials. The traces left deep underground by the three(?) or 4 (?) enclosure ditches are giving Jezz and his professional team more headaches.
Today's featured team members are Phil Flint (left, demonstrating his skill at projectile sieving) and Megan Fletcher-Cutts. Phil worked for Suffolk Archaeology briefly in 1986 when they were excavating at Snape, but moved on and didn't return until 1999. In the 14 years since then he's been on a lot of digs, both community projects like ours and contract but the Anglo Saxon cemetery under the car park at Sutton Hoo stands out. His most memorable find was a Bronze Age pin, about 6 inches long, with crystal end piece, found in an ditch excavation at Haverhill.
Megan is a local girl who went to Snape Primary, with the same head teacher who helped arrange for the children to come to our site on Tuesday. Now she is a 3rd year undergrad at Sheffield Uni doing a BA in archaeology and has been on half a dozen digs. Her outstanding experiences were in Magdeburg, Germany where she worked on early Bronze Age sites, including the amazing chance to excavate one of the famous beaker burials. Even more memorable was coming face to face with a human skull in the middle of a domestic midden!
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