The sun is shining,
the weather is sweet again….and we are full throttle and taking advantage of
this glorious sunshine until the next set of storms attack!
So what’s happened in
the last 2 days?
Well Trench U is
having all the excitement currently, with some fabulous finds from their trench
and equally exciting structures coming to light.
Structures wise they
are working on what seems to be the external ends of a house, with a possible
medieval mortar layer on one side of the wall which may present a medieval
courtyard.
Outside of this
potential house there has been some fantastic finds including the beautiful
little squirrel seal. Our 3D modelling team were quick to model this find in
order in invert the seal to see what it represented. The results were great
with a small squirrel sitting in the centre and surrounded by a Latin
inscription which read I Crake Notis
which in translation means I Crack Nuts,
which made some of the team chuckle more than others (See below for photos).
The seal
The seal's underneath
Inverted seal
At the west end of
their trench they have also had some lovely glazed curved tile out next to what appears to be a base/beam slot for a window fitting. Their next
task is to start taking down the material on the internal of the walls to see
what contexts lay beneath!
Elsewhere in the
field, Trench N are removing the clay floor layer which was found underneath
the base of an altar which was removed last year and giving a full clean to the
external quadrants.
Trench P are being
driven nutty with an explosion of post holes in their trench, these are getting
recorded currently along with the planning of the entire north half of the
trench. They are also starting to take down the top contexts inside the brick
walls to work out what phasing is occurring beneath, so stay tuned for more on
that!
Trench W has now finished
de-turfing their trench and are investigating an orange spread that was under
the top soil. Finds from their trench so far consist of half a horse shoe and a
musket ball. Claire has found a very efficient way to keep her helpers under
control, thank you Jurassic World (see photo below).
Taming the helpers in Trench W
Trench W
Our finds team are
having a lovely time in the sunshine processing our finds in their fancy finds
palace.
Finds processing
Finally here is a
nice image from the aerial photography that is taking place on site which shows
Skinner’s second home (well the earth work remains of it). This photo is part
of a larger project which involves 3D modelling the entire abbey and its
precinct and geo-tagging the whole lot as well!
(Aerial shot of earthworks)
And with that I am
off for jambalaya and camp quiz!