We are in the countdown of five more days to wrap things up. It’s going to be busy next week!
Today’s goal was to conduct a Stage 2 type test pit survey on a field down the road from our main excavation area. This is a very common type of job for summer field techs working in archaeology, so we want to make sure our students are prepared with the main skills they will need to hit the ground running if they get hired on to work the rest of the summer (which happens quite often!).
Stage 2 investigations can take place in two ways: the first by walking spaced transects on a freshly ploughed and disked field that has had some heavy rain, and second, on places where ploughing is not possible, digging 30cm diameter holes on 5m spacing that extend 5cm into subsoil, screening the soil removed, and recording if there are artifacts present.
First thing in the morning we met at the trailer, gathered up flags, tapes, shovels, and screens and headed down the road. James established a baseline, and in teams of two spaced everyone five metres apart, and said go to it! The weather was a treat as we had sun and a nice breeze but it wasn’t hot.
At lunchtime, it was time to pack up and get all the equipment back to the trailer. Once we had all reconvened, James laid out the plans for next week and let the crew off early to enjoy the weekend after a week of hard work. See you Monday, it looks like the last week is going to be a scorcher!
Leave a comment