Day 5: Understanding undercrofts and deciphering drains

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!

Day 4: Extensions and Interviews

It's been a fairly quiet day on site, with most trenches in the process of being extended or being planned. As a result, it's an ideal time to introduce a regular feature in which we interview some of the students who are helping us on site. Today international archaeologists Emma, Jonathan and Victoria provide some insight into the reasons why they are here, their experiences and what they have disliked most!

From left to right: Emma, Jonathan and Victoria

Emma Le Pouesard

Home Town: Senlis, France

Why did you want to come to Thornton? I am studying medieval art and I want to get near medieval things. I can’t do that in Montreal, Canada where I study, and my professor said that I should do a dig in England. 

What are you enjoying most about being here? Finding stuff! I get really excited about finding anything, even if it is something small and insignificant like tiles.

What are you enjoying least? The rain!

What have you learnt? I never realised how many hypotheses archaeologists considered before selecting the correct one, and it’s fascinating to follow their deliberations.

What are your future plans? I’m currently finishing my undergraduate course and will start applying for PhD programmes in the Autumn.

Jonathan Rose

Home Town: Highland, Illinois

Why did you want to come to Thornton? I wanted to study medieval archaeology and see how things are different from the states. I feel a lot more care is taken in English academic digs compared to American commercial archaeology; you take a lot more care about their history.

What are you enjoying most about being here? Meeting people from students from all around the world. It’s a great experience to meet people from a global environment which I wouldn’t get to do normally. I’ve also enjoyed the different approaches used here as it demonstrates how there is more than one way to excavate the same feature.

What are you enjoying least? I’m not a big fan of camping, but as a boy scout that’s something I’ve got used to!

What have you learnt? The English have a different terminology for things, such as “sections” rather “walls”, although the measuring system is fortunately the same! Using the mini mattocks was also a fun new experience.

What are your future plans? Continue working with archaeology and maybe pursue a Masters in Medieval Archaeology at Sheffield.

Victoria Yuskaitis

Home Town: Sparta, New Jersey

Why did you want to come to Thornton? I’ve got a University of Sheffield Faculty Studentship for the MA in Medieval Archaeology in Autumn an, in correspondence Hugh [Willmott] mentioned the dig and said I should come, so I did!

What are you enjoying most about being here? It’s great to actually be here, although I’ve studied medieval archaeology for the past few years this is the first time I’ve seen it, so it’s the fulfilment of everything I’ve been looking for. I also didn’t realise the dig has such an international mix of students and that’s fantastic too! I’ve also done research on medieval hospitals in the past, so this also fits in well with my interests.

What are you enjoying least? The cold! I expected the rain, but I think the New Jersey definition of cold varies somewhat from the English version!

What have you learnt? I do have dig experience, but from Israel, so some of the methodology is very different and some of the technology here is more advanced. It’s a very different way of doing things, and that’s been something that’s been really interesting to find out about.

What are your future plans? In the past my research has focused on medieval mysticism, so investigating religion and church archaeology is something I’d like to explore further.

Extending Trench P

Now that most of our trenches are a lot bigger than on Day 1, there will certainly be plenty to keep our students occupied! We are already exploring the possibility of undercrofts, drains and even more walls, and will bring you further updates soon.

Planning Trench R

Day 3: Extensions and Inundations

Today, whilst being rather shorter than intended, has also been very much a day of two halves. This is largely due to the weather, which quickly deteriorated from glorious sunshine to thunder, lightning and torrential rain. This forced an early close to the day’s activities but despite this, there are many reasons to be optimistic at the halfway point of Week 1. In particular, this is due to the large number of trench extensions that are planned over the next few days which will provide our excavators with plenty of interesting features to investigate.

Trench N

All topsoil has been removed from Trench N, revealing large areas of rubble which have now been carefully planned. Tomorrow we will start to extend the trench in a wide variety of directions so we can excavate the entirety of the eastern end of the building.  

Trench P

Trench P has also been cleaned and planned and is receiving a substantial extension to its north and west. This is largely to understand the relationship between two very different structures within the trench: a limestone building with substantial walls within the eastern half of the trench and a less substantial brick built structure to the west. Unfortunately this has also meant we have had to move our carefully constructed wall of turf; no fun at the best of times, but even worse when the rain is pouring down!

Levelling Trench N

In this aerial shot of Trench P,  you can clearly see a limestone building

Trench R

A rather soggy Trench R

There does not appear to be any walls in Trench R yet, although the rubble in the trench is looking quite linear. It has now been photographed, although rain meant planning will have to wait until tomorrow. After this, we will start to remove the layer which lies in the south and east of the trench to hopefully reveal more rubble and perhaps start to explain why it is there.

Despite the weather, spirits are high whilst planning Trench S

Trench S

Like many of the other trenches, Trench S has had all its topsoil removed and has now been planned. There is at least one wall within the trench which is constructed from eroded chalk blocks. This is of particular interest as chalk is usually used at Thornton to construct the earliest monastic buildings, suggesting just such a structure may be nearby. There is also tantalising evidence of further structures and rubble hiding beneath the current layers, more of which we will hopefully reveal tomorrow.

Trench T

Cleaning up the subsoil deposited in the base of Trench T has revealed more rubble. As there appears to be a wall emerging from the south-facing section, we extended the trench (twice!) to uncover more of this structure. Although we have only just removed the turf, already there is a possible brick wall already emerging from the surrounding soil. Further cleaning tomorrow will hopefully uncover more and start to explain why the wall is not, as you would expect, on the top of the slope, but is instead halfway down.

Hopefully tomorrow will be relatively dry but our excavators have already proved they are more than capable of coping with extremes in weather. However, a special mention should go to the Black Bull in East Halton who played host this afternoon to a company of extremely wet and cold archaeologists and plied them with extremely welcome cups of tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Thank you very much, your efforts were much appreciated!

Day 2: Meet the Team!

To give you a break from our site diaries, from time to time we hope to focus on various aspects of the dig. Today we focus on the supervisory team who support Hugh and Pete and do the day-to-day running of the trenches.

Trench N

As he is writing a PhD on medieval hospitals, Martin is in his element in Trench N. Never seen on excavation without his hat, he is also fairly photo shy, so don’t expect to see him in many photos!

Trench P

In charge of Trench P is Claire, who is currently writing her PhD on 17^th-century Dutch drinking vessels. As the principal first aider on site, Claire is the go-to girl for all medical emergencies. She also used to collect hubcaps (apparently). 

Trench R

Chris is taking a break from his year out to supervise Trench R but he hopes to do a PhD in medieval and post-medieval distillation in the future. He is particularly keen on a neat trench, so expect the most presentable photographs to be of Trench R. 

Trench S

Trench S is under the tender care of Courtenay, who is currently completing her MA in European Prehistory. However, as she is already finding medieval buildings in Trench S, we are hoping she will be converted to medievalism very shortly!

  

Trench T

Although her PhD will be on the Carthusians rather than the Augustinians, Francesca is looking forward to uncovering more monastic buildings in Trench T. Engaged to an archaeologist from Wessex, she’s already sorted out her entire wedding which will take place in 2016, so a small trench should be child’s play.

We also have several other supervisors who lend a hand, including Rachel and James. Rachel is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Sheffield who is taking a break from the Newark Civil War Project whilst James is offering his invaluable experiences of supervising excavations at MoLA Northampton.

Work today has progressed well and all six trenches are now deturfed. Hopefully all traces of topsoil across the site will have been removed by tomorrow, when we will be able to bring you the latest on-site developments.

Trench S now has some very clean walls

All present and correct in Trench N!