Day 2

We had 6 volunteers today including myself, Olivia. Si, George, Ted, and Nicola. We also had two more members from the WA team.

A fourth trench was opened today and the undergrowth was cut back and the vegetation below was removed to expose the soil. All of today’s volunteers said how much they had thoroughly enjoyed the experience and said that they were fascinated by the whole process and that they will come back to help on other days.

A clay pipe bowl was dug out of one of the trenches intact, along with a small animal bone, some pottery, some iron slag and charcoal.

The trenches that were opened yesterday have just about been taken down to the natural, but not quite yet.

As a complete novice in archaeological excavation I have moved from trench to trench in awe at the methodical process of the Wessex Archaeology team and how they have taken the surface back 20cm at a time in places, but despite this, the amount of soil that has already been cleared from all of the trenches that were opened yesterday is very impressive.