Early dampness cleared away to give us good solid middle part of the day, with the tempo higher still on the penultimate day. So much to finish amongst what we have found, and so much ground to break open to ensure we have reached the true margins – some hope! Then before the tea break the rain set in, a chilly penetrating drizzle that soaked through everything and sent us home early, covered in wet sand and clay. A very frustrating end, and only one day left, when the end-of-dig BBQ will distract some slackers…
So there was a massive push in the north east corner of the site with mattocks, shovels and hoes to find any traces of features, and more of the same on a slightly smaller scale in the west end, where Alison Andrews and Richard Marsen toiled to reveal nothing more than a collection of giant flints. The grave work is nearing conclusion, with burials being cleared and recorded in fine detail. A strange ‘box like’ object has appeared in one of the later graves, approximately where the feet would have been, had they survived. (see below). The surface is very smooth and uniform, but it seems to have some appreciable depth to it. A block that the feet or coffin end rested upon? Tomorrow will have to tell.
The same applies to the very distinct charcoal bed found beyond the feet of the ‘treasure box’ skeleton. After an agonising wait whilst all the minute details of the grave were precisely recorded, there was just time to start exploring the dark feature or ‘cut’ beyond the foot of the grave when the rain got too bad. There is undoubtedly something there, starting with a bed of charcoal, but whether it was earlier, and the grave cut into it, or later and narrowly missed the coffin…tomorrow, tomorrow.
In the ‘dagger’ grave a spectacular final view of the skeleton, remarkably preserved for most of its length, faded quietly away into the mundane assortment of plastic bags and boxes. Like with ‘Georgie’ a few days ago, one can only hope that lab work on the ‘dagger’ will bring the whole image back to public view for the attention it deserves.
Robert’s mead hall completed it’s transition into complete oblivion – no doubt driven frantic by 3 weeks of hard labour to find just a few teeth he was heard speculating wildly about just what the clay shapes might be – sadly it’s unlikely that Saxon ditch diggers would have had the spare time to create giant models of recumbent, well endowed earth goddesses called Jordan.
Luckily nothing of this was shared with our two eminent academic visitors. Dr Mary Chester-Kadwell is an Anglo Saxon specialist with the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research
at Cambridge, and she came with Dr David Barrowclough, director of Archaeological Studies at
Wolfson College, Cambridge. They had a full site tour, and another of Val’s impromptu seminars, examining all the finds from the ‘treasure box’ grave. Before leaving they also spent some time with the group of students that we’ve so enjoyed having on the dig – and we all hope that they have found it useful and fun.
So there was a massive push in the north east corner of the site with mattocks, shovels and hoes to find any traces of features, and more of the same on a slightly smaller scale in the west end, where Alison Andrews and Richard Marsen toiled to reveal nothing more than a collection of giant flints. The grave work is nearing conclusion, with burials being cleared and recorded in fine detail. A strange ‘box like’ object has appeared in one of the later graves, approximately where the feet would have been, had they survived. (see below). The surface is very smooth and uniform, but it seems to have some appreciable depth to it. A block that the feet or coffin end rested upon? Tomorrow will have to tell.
The same applies to the very distinct charcoal bed found beyond the feet of the ‘treasure box’ skeleton. After an agonising wait whilst all the minute details of the grave were precisely recorded, there was just time to start exploring the dark feature or ‘cut’ beyond the foot of the grave when the rain got too bad. There is undoubtedly something there, starting with a bed of charcoal, but whether it was earlier, and the grave cut into it, or later and narrowly missed the coffin…tomorrow, tomorrow.
In the ‘dagger’ grave a spectacular final view of the skeleton, remarkably preserved for most of its length, faded quietly away into the mundane assortment of plastic bags and boxes. Like with ‘Georgie’ a few days ago, one can only hope that lab work on the ‘dagger’ will bring the whole image back to public view for the attention it deserves.
Robert’s mead hall completed it’s transition into complete oblivion – no doubt driven frantic by 3 weeks of hard labour to find just a few teeth he was heard speculating wildly about just what the clay shapes might be – sadly it’s unlikely that Saxon ditch diggers would have had the spare time to create giant models of recumbent, well endowed earth goddesses called Jordan.
Luckily nothing of this was shared with our two eminent academic visitors. Dr Mary Chester-Kadwell is an Anglo Saxon specialist with the McDonald Institute of Archaeological Research
at Cambridge, and she came with Dr David Barrowclough, director of Archaeological Studies at
Wolfson College, Cambridge. They had a full site tour, and another of Val’s impromptu seminars, examining all the finds from the ‘treasure box’ grave. Before leaving they also spent some time with the group of students that we’ve so enjoyed having on the dig – and we all hope that they have found it useful and fun.
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