"What I did on my summer holidays"
Aug. 1st, 2009 10:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbBelow is my report for the college folk who are giving me (eventually) a cheque for a very little bit of money.
In other news, the New Cat - did I tell you all about the New Cat? - can now sometimes be convinced to come out from under the bed on his own and jump up on the bed to be made a fuss of. Still not eating or drinking, but settling down a good bit more.
Travel Grant Report
Insula IX Silchester Town Life Project
29-06-09 - 23-07-09
Introduction.
I'm tempted to start writing with "What I did on my summer holidays by Liz Bourke, aged twenty-three and one-sixth," but that would be glib. Instead, I'm going to divide this short report into two: first, a brief overview of what I was doing, and second, a list of the skills and processes which I learned and carried out.
I. Overview.
During my four weeks on site, I was in the North-Western section of the excavation. This area was thought to have the oldest archaeology, that of the Iron Age period, but at the beginning there were indications that parts of this section's archaeology was still of the Claudio-Neronian period, that of 40-60 CE. Under the supervision of Sarah Henley, a professional archaeologist who works for Oxford Archaeology during the rest of the year, we were primarily engaged in investigating the extent and edges of an Iron Age trackway and its ditches. In addition, a number of pits, a hearth and an area which may or may not have been the clay floor of a roundhouse were also excavated. (The section immediately to the east was in the process of excavating a possible roundhouse as well.) The Iron Age trackway, which taken together with the Iron Age trackway in the section immediately south of the North-Western Area, demonstrates a possible town plan on a diagonal to the layout of the later Roman plan, was quite interesting: excavation revealed possible wheelruts and the possibility of its use and reuse as a road over a period of time. The more southerly sections of the excavation were involved in the excavation of slightly later remains: pits and wells and dwellings of the period 40-60 CE and in the southeastern corner, post 40-60 CE, at least initially.
The research aims of the project are to investigate the development of this area of Insula IX from its presumably Iron Age beginnings down through the Roman period. At the point of my participation as a student, I was given to understand that we were looking at the archaeology of the period of transition from Iron Age to Roman, with some faint indications coming to light of a possible military presence and in the 40-60 CE levels, evidence of a burnt layer.
In terms of excavation, I was involved in general cleaning, in the investigation of sections of archaeology adjacent to the line of the trackway in order to define its ditches and its edges, and in the excavation of one shallow pit. I also spent a number of half-days working for Finds in washing, marking, and sorting of bulk finds, and for Environmental in floating and sorting samples for general biological analysis. In addition, on the Thursday of the third week I took part in experimental archaeology involving the casting of lead weights for plumbata, and in exercises to investigate the potential tactics which Dacian falxmen may have used during the Dacian Wars organised by David Sims. I also took part in a pottery identification masterclass given by Prof. Mike Fulford, and attended further lectures on Leicester University's Tesserae Project, artistic reconstruction of archaeological remains, Roman weaponry and armour, site finds, sampling and testing for phosphates in environmental archaeology, databases and digital technology in archaeology, and the Silchester Mapping Project, a geophysics project run by Prof. Jon Creighton.
II. Skills.
1. Single context recording: planning cuts, fills, and structures using a grid, taking levels to ascertain spot heights, planning coordinates and spot heights of small finds, filling out paper and digital context cards, interpreting matrices.
2. Section drawing.
3. Techniques of excavation: removing sections of contexts using a trowel or (for larger, more sterile fills) a mattock, distinguishing between contexts by the colour and texture of the soil during both dry and damp weather.
4. Identification, recording and treatment of small finds such as whole pots, Samian stamps, copper and iron objects, etc.
5. Identification, recording and treatment of bulk finds such as bone, potsherd, large pieces of charcoal, ceramic building material, opus signinum, iron nails.
6. Taking, recording, floating, and sorting of samples for general biological analysis.
7. Site safety.
8. Theory and practice of site and finds photography.
9. Dealing with working in temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius.
10. Dealing with working in heavy, light, or intermittent rain, and learning to recognise when or if the rain (and mud) becomes severe enough to interfere with recognising and excavating the archaeology.
11. General skills involved in campsite living for the duration of a month.
12. Safety involved in participating in experimental archaeology involving metalworking.
13. Identification of common potsherd types on-site such as Samian ware, Silchester ware, black burnished ware, terra rubra, terra nigra, Alice Holt ware, and white Gallo-Belgic ware.
14. Dealing with members of the public who visited the site.
In other news, the New Cat - did I tell you all about the New Cat? - can now sometimes be convinced to come out from under the bed on his own and jump up on the bed to be made a fuss of. Still not eating or drinking, but settling down a good bit more.
Travel Grant Report
Insula IX Silchester Town Life Project
29-06-09 - 23-07-09
Introduction.
I'm tempted to start writing with "What I did on my summer holidays by Liz Bourke, aged twenty-three and one-sixth," but that would be glib. Instead, I'm going to divide this short report into two: first, a brief overview of what I was doing, and second, a list of the skills and processes which I learned and carried out.
I. Overview.
During my four weeks on site, I was in the North-Western section of the excavation. This area was thought to have the oldest archaeology, that of the Iron Age period, but at the beginning there were indications that parts of this section's archaeology was still of the Claudio-Neronian period, that of 40-60 CE. Under the supervision of Sarah Henley, a professional archaeologist who works for Oxford Archaeology during the rest of the year, we were primarily engaged in investigating the extent and edges of an Iron Age trackway and its ditches. In addition, a number of pits, a hearth and an area which may or may not have been the clay floor of a roundhouse were also excavated. (The section immediately to the east was in the process of excavating a possible roundhouse as well.) The Iron Age trackway, which taken together with the Iron Age trackway in the section immediately south of the North-Western Area, demonstrates a possible town plan on a diagonal to the layout of the later Roman plan, was quite interesting: excavation revealed possible wheelruts and the possibility of its use and reuse as a road over a period of time. The more southerly sections of the excavation were involved in the excavation of slightly later remains: pits and wells and dwellings of the period 40-60 CE and in the southeastern corner, post 40-60 CE, at least initially.
The research aims of the project are to investigate the development of this area of Insula IX from its presumably Iron Age beginnings down through the Roman period. At the point of my participation as a student, I was given to understand that we were looking at the archaeology of the period of transition from Iron Age to Roman, with some faint indications coming to light of a possible military presence and in the 40-60 CE levels, evidence of a burnt layer.
In terms of excavation, I was involved in general cleaning, in the investigation of sections of archaeology adjacent to the line of the trackway in order to define its ditches and its edges, and in the excavation of one shallow pit. I also spent a number of half-days working for Finds in washing, marking, and sorting of bulk finds, and for Environmental in floating and sorting samples for general biological analysis. In addition, on the Thursday of the third week I took part in experimental archaeology involving the casting of lead weights for plumbata, and in exercises to investigate the potential tactics which Dacian falxmen may have used during the Dacian Wars organised by David Sims. I also took part in a pottery identification masterclass given by Prof. Mike Fulford, and attended further lectures on Leicester University's Tesserae Project, artistic reconstruction of archaeological remains, Roman weaponry and armour, site finds, sampling and testing for phosphates in environmental archaeology, databases and digital technology in archaeology, and the Silchester Mapping Project, a geophysics project run by Prof. Jon Creighton.
II. Skills.
1. Single context recording: planning cuts, fills, and structures using a grid, taking levels to ascertain spot heights, planning coordinates and spot heights of small finds, filling out paper and digital context cards, interpreting matrices.
2. Section drawing.
3. Techniques of excavation: removing sections of contexts using a trowel or (for larger, more sterile fills) a mattock, distinguishing between contexts by the colour and texture of the soil during both dry and damp weather.
4. Identification, recording and treatment of small finds such as whole pots, Samian stamps, copper and iron objects, etc.
5. Identification, recording and treatment of bulk finds such as bone, potsherd, large pieces of charcoal, ceramic building material, opus signinum, iron nails.
6. Taking, recording, floating, and sorting of samples for general biological analysis.
7. Site safety.
8. Theory and practice of site and finds photography.
9. Dealing with working in temperatures of up to 35 degrees Celsius.
10. Dealing with working in heavy, light, or intermittent rain, and learning to recognise when or if the rain (and mud) becomes severe enough to interfere with recognising and excavating the archaeology.
11. General skills involved in campsite living for the duration of a month.
12. Safety involved in participating in experimental archaeology involving metalworking.
13. Identification of common potsherd types on-site such as Samian ware, Silchester ware, black burnished ware, terra rubra, terra nigra, Alice Holt ware, and white Gallo-Belgic ware.
14. Dealing with members of the public who visited the site.
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no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 11:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-01 11:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-02 12:56 am (UTC)New Cat? ::drops fresh catnip for kitteh:: Do tell!
no subject
Date: 2009-08-02 01:36 am (UTC)He's a handsome tabby with white toes and a white chest, six years old, whose ninety-four-year-old person died. He's friendly when not nervous, the soul of courtesy - no claws, not even under provocation - has a bad habit of finding the dustiest places in the house to hide under, and has actually come out and spent the last few hours demanding that I pay attention to him, not to the keyboard.
Still no food, but he's used the litterbox for liquids twice, and his weight and muscle are by no means meagre, so I figure he'll get around to eating when he's hungry.
His name was Puss, when he arrived, but he's been renamed, due to this household's abysmal sense of humour, to "Vladimir Pusskin".
no subject
Date: 2009-08-02 02:39 am (UTC)"An oak tree greening by the ocean;
A golden chain about it wound:
Whereon a learned cat, in motion
Both day night, will walk around"
no subject
Date: 2009-08-02 11:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-02 02:50 pm (UTC)