Today has been another rain-affected day, with a very damp
and bedraggled team making their way back to camp a little earlier than
planned. However, things are still steadily progressing and there have been
exciting developments in almost all the trenches.
Trench N and P
Although the two trenches are separate, the building they
share between them is causing much excitement between the archaeologists. In
addition to the large number of glazed floor tiles from Trench P (see the blog
entry for Day 1), Trench N has produced a rather lovely piece of
anthropomorphic sculpture; a hand clutching
an object which appears to be a book. Whilst fragmentary, it does suggest a
high profile building originally stood on the site and supports our supposition
that the two trenches are situated over the medieval hospital. Furthermore, the
large mounds of masonry contrast sharply with the large depressions between
them, which suggests the floor collapsed after the building fell into disuse.
This raises the possibility that the building may have an undercroft, in which
case our diggers have a lot of work in the weeks ahead! By early next week we
should be in a position to remove the rubble and start to investigate
the structure beneath. |
| Whilst the excavators work, the supervisors compare hypotheses on the archaeology being uncovered |
Trench R
Trench R is proving to be a slight enigma. The trench is
situated over a strong geophysical anomaly and clear earthworks, but this does
not correspond with the current archaeology. The rubble, whilst linear, is not
overlying any substantial structure and, once it has been removed, the trench
will consist of a single sandy clay layer. Despite this slightly pessimistic
outlook, the geophysical and topographic surveys still suggest there may be something
lying underneath this and we hope to uncover this in the upcoming days.
Trench S
 | |
| Finn, finder of the Trench S wall! |
Careful excavation and removal of subsoil in Trench S has
revealed another wall in the southeast corner of the trench. This appears to be
the return of the wall we had uncovered originally, although unlike our first
wall it is composed primarily of limestone rather than chalk. However, the
junction of the two walls appears to have been robbed, with clear evidence of a
robber cut containing small fragments of broken masonry (this is just in front of Finn's trowel in the photo). We are currently
removing the rubble from either side of the original wall and by next week will
be in a position to investigate this further.
Trench T
Trench T has a drain! As monastic drains are one of
Francesca’s key interests, she is particularly excited about the find of a
brick built structure with a vault in the extended portion of her trench. Although
the vault has collapsed, it appears to be the outflow of a drain which
continues as a rubble-filled depression in the south of the trench. We have a
lot of work to do in the area surrounding the drain before we can start to
carefully excavate this feature but, as drains are usually associated with
disposal of household and human waste, we are extremely hopeful that the trench
should produce plenty of environmental material as well as some sensational
finds.
 |
| Trench T, with the collapsed drain and a damp digger clearly visible |
Despite the rain (which has just about stopped!), spirits
remain high; the camp is currently filled with the sound of impromptu communal song and everyone
is looking forward to a quiz which will begin shortly. The high morale is just as well, as we are already almost a quarter of the way through the excavation and
there is plenty of archaeology still to uncover!
