Day Three: Wednesday 23rd June

We found out what animal the mystery jaw bone from yesterday belonged to. It was a COD.

Weather: Cool in the morning. Hot in the afternoon.

Word of the Day: Site Plan

Find of the Day: a Royal Marine button.


And today we had a Quote of the Day:

(Whilst discussing the new layer of soil that was being dug in trench 18).
Becky: At least theres another layer.
Danielle: There's layers right down to the core of the earth.

Today there was a lot of site planning going on. This is where you plot the features of the trench, the size and shape. In the photograph above, the long tape measure is the base line tape. The smaller tape is being used to measure the width at different points.

All information then has to be made 3D. This is so it can be overlayed onto maps for future reference and digs. This is a requirement for archiving a site. It is preservation by record.

To measure the site in 3D we use a 'Dumpy Level' and 'Staff'. You may recognise the 'Dumpy Level' because it is used for surveying.

This is the Find of the Day. It was found by Becky Hankinson who is studying a BA in Archaeology at Nottingham University. It is a small button with 'Royal Marines' embossed on it and a small crest or symbol. We think it is 19th century. We will let you know as soon as we do.

This was my personal find of the day. We named the snail 'Sampsom' and he became our mascot for a while. It was suggested that Cherubin should eat it. Escargot=Escar-gone.

This is Alvaro, a project officer from the Archaeological Research Services Limited, brushing off top soil for 18th century handmade bricks.



These are the 18th century handmade bricks, labelled and enjoying the sun.

The photogrpah above is of what looks like a grave stone. This is because the left corner is curved like that of a grave stone.

Here are Craig and Foggy getting to grips with doing a site plan of trench 15. Towards the end of the day a structure was discovered in the south of the trench.

We have a number of students from other universities than Sheffield. This is Kenneth 'Hutch' Gregory (left) and Cherubin Alcalen (right) who have both recently graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi where they studies Geographic Information Technologies.