Diary from the Dig

Day 3

by Sam, Evan and Sonata

Continuing on from yesterday’s work, preparation of the trenches has continued. In trench 1 we had quite a thick layer of topsoil which we needed to clear using mattocks in order to get to the layers where we think the archaeology might be. Hopefully by the end of the day we might be able to see traces of the ditch from the geophysics survey.

On the other hand, in trench 3, we’re already finding lots of archaeological material. In order to make sure we catch any material we missed when trowling, we are sieving the buckets of earth as they come out of the ground. So far we have found pottery fragments possibly dating to the Roman period, knapped flint and remains of animal bone.

In coming into contact with flint materials, experts from the CAU shared tips on how to identify those flints in their natural, burnt, or worked form. For burnt flint, we might expect a reddish or white colour (as opposed to the typical grey) with patina and uneven texture.

Due to being in the early phases of the excavation most finds have been quite recent but the nonetheless interesting. The most notable one was a finds bag left over from an excavation in 1997 which we were able to return to the lead excavator from then!

So, as the mounds of earth which we cart out of the trench keep getting higher and we slowly dig down and delve into archaeological depths, we look forward to uncovering more over the coming days.

Day 4

by Bilkis, Clemency, Alasdair and Verity

Day 4 encouraged us to appreciate the extremes of British weather, beginning with a beautiful sunny day (complete with a kite, stuck in a tree), followed by chilly winds and April showers.

After arriving, we had a refresher on lithic technology, looking at flake scars and signs of burning. Flint was burnt on site (as we saw yesterday, especially, in Trench 1), perhaps thrown into the fire as a method of disposal, or unavoidably present in the soil as someone made a bonfire. This uncertainty, dubbed equifinality, is ever-present in archaeology.

The 1x1 grid sampling, which began in Trench 3, on Tuesday has begun in Trench 1. Using the newly drawn up plan, a checkerboard, has appeared through systematically digging alternate squares to remove the top-soil/sub-soil. The chalk bedrock and borders of the ditches that we’re looking for have slowly been emerging from the earth. Aided by our morning session we have been identifying flint flakes and blades along with sherds of pottery, digging deeper beneath the chalkland meadow and battling through twisting tree roots.

A little further along the south bank, approaching Lethbridge’s chalk figures, a few students headed out to perform a ground resistivity survey. By emitting a (very) small current every metre, within 20m-by-20m grids, we slowly revealed a rough image of the surface beneath our feet. This activity required, in part, a pleasant walk through the meadow, alongside a hectic scramble through some hawthorn, and, later, a frantic dash for cover as the heavens opened. The geophysical survey continued after this interlude, mobbed by midges.

Day 5

by Hannah and Bálint

It’s day 5, and the sun is finally out! We have continued to excavate our individual squares down to the chalky bedrock - in some places. In others, however, the outlines of a ditch have appeared… Could this be the feature from the magnetometer survey?

Students who have finished excavating their squares have now been able to record ‘context sheets’ for their areas of work. This involves recording the nature of the deposit including the colour, composition, and inclusions of the soil. They are then able to draw ‘plan’ and ‘section’ illustrations of their contexts. The next step for the ‘checkerboard’ excavation is to remove the soil from the squares that have not yet been dug up. Unlike the thorough trowelling and sieving method that has been used thus far, these squares will be excavated using mattocks.

We have also started cleaning finds from the previous days, which will be on display tomorrow and next week. Tomorrow there will be an ‘archaeology open day’ at Wandlebury for members of the public. This will involve archaeology activities for all ages (indoors!). Finds from this dig and some from other digs of the same period will be exhibited alongside insightful and enthralling explanations by archaeological experts.

We look forward to continuing our work next week when we will start excavating the ditch itself and hopefully yield even richer finds and enable us to date the feature. 

Day 7

by Sam and Connor

After just over a week we’re beginning to see the results of our hard work. In trench 3 we’ve now cleared all of the subsoil and a ditch can be seen running through the chalk in the middle of the trench. We’ve now begun cutting slots into this ditch to determine when it might have been constructed and whether there are any interesting artefacts buried inside. To do this the ditch has been split into 1 m sections and we are excavating every second slot and sieving the material for finds. This method is used for two reasons. Firstly, we can dig a representative sample of the ditch rather than excavating the whole feature which saves us time. Secondly, we maintain vertical sections of the ditch allowing us to identify the different soil fills.

In trench 1, the cleaning process has been a bit more complicated. One of the difficulties has been trying to control our stratigraphy and ensuring that whilst we’re clearing off the subsoil, we don’t dig too deep into the ditch fill and therefore associate the wrong finds with the wrong contexts. At the same time however we needed to cut a balance in not removing too little material and obscuring any parts of the feature. In one section for example taking the soil down further revealed possible post holes.

We’re looking forward to an exciting end to the week and finding out what finds might be waiting for us in the ditch. Hopefully the sunny weather holds as well.

Day 8

by Ben and Clemency

For Alasdair, Evan and Eleanor, the day began at 5:00 this morning. While the sun was rising, they braved a 40 minute cycle to Wandlebury, arriving to celebrate Mayday with the Devil’s Dyke, a Cambridge Morris Dancing group. The celebration was framed by a beautiful clear sky, and Melodian music, described by the group as a ‘Happy continuation of England’s traditions’.

Back in the trenches: 

Mattocking the ‘Unidentified Linear Feature’ continued today, as we cut deeper and wider into the trench. There have been some brilliant finds: Roman and Iron Age pottery have been unearthed across both trenches. The intermixing of these two ceramic styles opens questions surrounding the age of the ditch, which was originally supposed to have Iron Age origins.

But this is not where it ends! ‘‘Besides archaeological remains there are a lot of interesting geological features emerging” noted one student, referring to the ammonites, belemnites, and a fossilised shell discovered in Trench 1. These finds emphasise the changing landscape of Wandlebury: Mayday dancers spin today in the same place ammonites swam millions of years ago. 

Day 9 and 10

by Oscar Aldred

The ditch that the students have been excavating so heroically over the previous two weeks was expected to be relatively shallow, say 0.2-0.3m, and simple. That said, in both trenches the students began to see that the edges of the ditch were much wider than was originally anticipated. Furthermore, the ditch itself was much deeper too. Excavation proceeded through the brutally hot sun (not complaining!), with the students carefully hacking out the remaining fills of the ditch as the end of the excavation drew ever closer. 

By the end of the ninth day, the ditch now resembled a beautiful prehistoric ditch, with symmetrical sides. There was some complexity, though: not only was the ditch much wider (c. 2m to 2.5m wide) but substantially deeper (c. 1m), there was also the indication of a 'ghost' posthole in the section of all but one of the excavated slots. Along with side packing to give additional support to the post (that was removed in antiquity). The posthole is a 'ghost' because nothing of the post remains, only the edges and loose chalk that fills the void. There is figuratively a much deeper and bigger story going on here that will become clearer as the post-excavation journey begins. In summary, what the excavation revealed was the remains of a wooden palisade running the entire stretch of the excavation (across both trenches) dug into an earlier prehistoric ditch; all of this probably happened before the middle Iron Age, with the ditch possibly late Bronze Age in date.  

The last day was to be a focus on the recording of the ditch and palisade. Unfortunately, the last day was more or less entirely washed out, and this meant that the hard work that was bravely fought over the two weeks was not entirely seen through to its final climax. This meant the teaching staff recording the ditch and palisade features on another day. The students, having endured the wetness for a few hours, were put to task making sure the archive records were up to date, and that the remaining finds were washed and sorted for processing. All in all, the ending could have been better, but the students should be proud of themselves for excavating so efficiently, and revealing such a spectacular and significant ditch and palisade. What's left to do now is to understand what the ditch palisade are doing, and what the relationship is to the wider landscape beyond the trenches, and its relationship to the hillfort, which seemed so simple on the eighth day!