Hello and welcome to my post!  My name is Annie and I one of the lucky few who are undertaking a Community Archaeology Training Placement being offered by the Council for British Archaeology and I’m doing it with Canterbury Archaeological Trust.  Here’s a link to the CBA web-site where there is more information on the placements, the project is set to continue for a few more years so do keep an eye out if you are interested in signing up!

Anyway, down to business and I’ll start with a quick run down of the project.  A Town Unearthed: Folkestone before 1500 is a 3 year community project centred around uncovering Folkestone’s rich and varied history through a variety of activities including archaeological excavation, lectures, school visits, events, talks, forums, and exhibitions (to name but a few!) with volunteers taking a lead in organising, stewarding, and generally making things happen.  The project is in it’s final year and I have been tasked with being in charge of the archaeology side of things which is where our Day of Archaeology day comes in….

…Last year the archaeology side of the project centred around a Roman Villa which is tragically falling off the edge of a cliff (estimates are predicting the whole site will be gone in 50 years).  The Villa was uncovered and open to the public from the 1920s-1950s when post-war austerity forced it’s closure and it was re-buried until the 1980s when some archaeologists went in to see how much was being lost; since then more has gone over and it was decided to open it up to have another look.  Around 200 people from Folkestone had a go at excavating the site over 3 months, with plenty more dropping in to have a look, and the results were surprising. Only a portion of the Villa was re-excavated and produced some fantastic finds of the period, but more exciting perhaps was the discovery of a large Iron Age settlement beneath the floors of the Villa.  This settlement appeared to be industrial in nature, as a large number of quern stones, made from the local Green Stone found on the beach below, were discovered, and have been found in the gardens of the houses surrounding the area (many of them now making up attractive fireplaces and rockeries!); some were even incorporated into the fabric of the Roman Villa.  This year we are not returning to the Villa site but are instead test pitting in the gardens of the houses near to the site in the hope of picking up some Roman or Iron Age features to establish the extent of the site.  On our Day of Archeology day we were mid-excavation in our first ‘pit’ and I’m going to give you a insight into how I like to involve my volunteers on community projects.

So our day starts and we immediately pick up where we left off on the previous day with everyone getting stuck in with the trowels…

We find an interesting green patch of clay, which turned out to be a very unexciting modern dumping episode…

..we persevere…

…giving the trench a quick scan with the metal detector…

…and come up with a bullet! We also had two coins (possibly Roman) and a few buttons which may have been from military uniforms. Folkestone played a large part in both the First and Second World wars and to find evidence for this is very exciting for me…

..and finally starting the recording. I’m a big believer in volunteers getting involved in all aspects of archaeology, including the paperwork, so if you ever end up on one of my sites I will torture you with it..

…and there we have it, a day of community archaeology with a fantastic bunch of people who I’d like to thank for their hard work and dedication to the project. Although this particular test pit did not produce any Roman or Iron Age features we had a lot of pottery from the period so I’m satisfied. We’ll be test pitting all through the summer. I am blogging about my placement so if you’d like to have a look at what I’ve been up to, or want to keep up to date on this project then here’s the link.

Thanks for reading!

Summarising the 29th June 2012 for the staff of Wessex Archaeology is a both a challenge and an opportunity.  Spread over four regional offices in Edinburgh, Sheffield, Rochester and Salisbury everyone is busy working on a range of activities, from diving wrecks to excavation, examining finds in the lab to research. This blog aims to provide a glimpse of some of these activities.

In the field

We have a variety of staff out in the field today.

A Wessex Archaeology diver © Crown Copyright, taken by Wessex Archaeology

Our dive team are currently working for English Heritage on the Contract for Archaeological Services in Relation to the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.  Today, falls within the fieldwork season,  however they are not diving due to bad weather.  You Can read their own Day of Archaeology blog – A Quiet Day.

A very small Chris in the distance © Wessex Archaeology

On dry land, well almost, Chris Ellis, Senior Archaeologist, is running investigations at Steart Point.  In advance of a habitat creation scheme, Team van Oord, on behalf of the Environmental Agency working in partnership with the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust, commissioned Wessex Archaeology to undertake the mitigation work on what is, and has always been, a low-lying peninsula prone to flooding.  However over the past few month’s fieldwork, including a walk over survey, geophysical survey, evaluation and excavation, our team have discovered evidence for settlement spanning several thousand years, including Iron Age, Romano-British, medieval and post-medieval occupation.

Out on site © CEMEX UK Materials

There are also various excavations going on across the country run by our different offices.

Hannah Brown sporting the latest geophysics acessories © Wessex Archaeology

Two of our  terrestrial geophysics team, Ben Urmston and Hannah Brown, are also occupied out in the field undertaking a magnetometry survey.  This is the kit the team use the most because it can detect a wide range of archaeological features.

In Scotland

OCHMAPP © Wessex Archaeology

On Friday the Outer Hebrides Coastal Communities Marine Archaeology Project (OHCCMAP) team from Wessex Archaeology (Coastal & Marine) and the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) were in a very remote area of South Uist in the Outer Hebrides, accessed only by boat. The team have been studying previously unrecorded buildings and archaeological features, some of which are now underwater. Based upon reports from local people and communities the team have been mixing diving with landscape surveying and geoarchaeology to examine the development of these remote coastal landscapes during prehistory and in recent centuries. This year’s results are already looking very interesting.

In the Sheffield Office

18th century system for the water features at Barnham Park © Wessex Archaeology

In our Sheffield offices the team are finalising the report for fieldwork undertaking at the Grade 1 listed Barham Park, Wetherby, West Yorkshire.  The excavations explored early 18th century water features that no longer exist in the contemporary gardens.

In the Salisbury Office

Walking through the various labs and offices in the Salisbury offices, we collected a few photographs of people.

Pulling together a site story © Wessex Archaeology

In the Project Officer’s room, things are quiet as nearly everyone is out in the field.  However, Sue Clelland, Senior Archaeologist, is working is on all the paper records from a large scale evaluation and excavation project.  The written, photographic. drawing, environmental and site survey all need to be cross referenced.  With this task now completed, Sue is trying to make sense of it all, grouping records together to develop a site story.  On the computer, you can see the information for a late Roman building.

Overlaying historical maps © Wessex Archaeology

Chloe Hunnisett, Heritage Consultant, is back in the office after a trip to a site, walk over survey and visit to the local archives.  It is now time to start on the desk based assessment for this site.  Here, we can see uploaded digitised copies of historic maps overlaid onto the GIS over the HER data for local monuments. Chloe will now start her assessment of how the landscape has changed over time and what archaeology could exist in the area.

Enhancing records © Wessex Archaeology

Sophie Thorogood, Marine Archaeologist, is busy working on the final report for the South East Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment. This is an English Heritage project, which aims to enhance the archaeological records of the National Monuments Record, local Historic Environment Records and Sites and Monuments Records, and to serve as a basis for improved management of the coastal historic environment.

Marine Geophysics

The marine geophysics team are busy interpreting sidescan data from the field.  Sidescan is a type of geophysical survey that measures the intensity of soundwaves reflected off the seafloor.  These experts can assess if the sidescan shows natural or man-made features. If man-made they could indicate the location of a wreck. Their work is very technical and complicated – illustrated by the complex combination of computer screens required.

How many computer screens does one person need? Four, apparently © Wessex Archaeology

Louise Tizzard, one of our Geologists, is looking at the geology of the seabed to understand submerged prehistoric landscapes in marine dredging zones. In particular looking at License Area 240, where in the past there has been a major discovery of Palaeolithic handaxes.

In the lab

In the lab you can find all our post-excavation specialists.

Examining cremated remains © Wessex Archaeology

Dr Jackie Mckinley, is our human remains expert.  Today she is examining a cremation burial. Here, she is detailing all the identifying fragments of bone that can help her conclude about age, sex and other important information.  For example, examining the cremation burial by spits can highlight how the skeleton was placed into the burial vessel.

Back from the field and cleaning finds © Wessex Archaeology

Tom, currently back from the field, is washing finds from an excavation.

Post excavation finds sorting © Wessex Archaeology

While Ellie Brooks is looking through these washed finds, sorting, counting and weighing them by type and content bag, then preparing to box them up.

Chris in the environmental lab © Wessex Archaeology

Delicate work © Wessex Archaeology

In the environmental lab, Chris Stevens and Nikki Mulhall  are delicately picking out charred plant remains from residue of processed soil samples.  These remains will be analysed, the plants identified and then cross-referenced with information about the features on site where they were excavated to see what conclusions may be drawn.  For example, what were the people from the site eating?

Geomatics

Volunteers learning and using a Total Station on previous Churches Conservation Trust project © Wessex Archaeology

Geomatics is the discipline of gathering, processing, and delivering spatially referenced information and is vital to modern archaeological practice.  Our Geomatics team, led by Paul Cripps, are mainly in the office but today Paul is organising a fieldwork event for the Churches Conservation Trust as part of the Festival of British Archaeology.   You can find out more on Paul’s own blog  – A Day of Archaeological Geomatics

The Graphics Office

The Graphics Team are a fundamental part of the company, we rely on these talented people for a range of activities, from typesetting and providing figures for reports to artefact and reconstruction illustration to creating exhibitions and posters.

Here you can see Kitty drawing a Palaeolithic handaxe found in a marine aggregate dredging area.

Getting out and about

Wessex Archaeology is a charitable trust with an educational remit to promote archaeology.  As a result, we have dedicated staff for working with the public, who unsurprisingly decided to provide their own material for Day of Archaeology.

Sarah Phillips, Senior Learning and Access Officer had the least exciting day.  This is sadly the price of heading up the team but her blog – The Glamour of Outreach – illustrates that it is not all fun and games, admin exists in outreach too.

CBA Comunity Archaeology trainne Angus, our experimental archaeologist © Angus Forshaw

Having said that our CBA funded Community Archaeology Trainee Placement, Angus Forshaw had a great day on site working on Barrow Clump as part of Operation Nightingale . You can find out more about the site and project on his blog – A Day with Operation Nightingale

Laura interviewing Alex, a Rifleman for Project Florence podcast © Wessex Archaeology

While Laura Joyner, the Project Florence Officer was also out at Barrow Clump working with young film volunteers and filmmakers from Salisbury Arts centre on a documentary.  You can read about her day on the Project Florence’s Day of Archaeology blog – Lights, Camera, Action.

The End of the Tour

So that is a brief tour of Wessex Archaeology and you have only seen a fraction of what is going on here today.  Before I finish this blog, I have to mention the people not shown here at all, our board of trustees,  the directors, project managers, our amazing finance team and admin staff that keep the company running so that we can do all these activities.

This is just one day at Wessex Archaeology, the next might be completely different, and you never know what you will discover.

My name is Angel Green and I am an Anthropology major at Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York.  It has been a lifelong dream of mine to work as an archaeologist in the field and this summer I fulfilled that dream.  I am one of ten students participating in the Binghamton University Archaeology Field School 2012.  This experience has not only opened my eyes to the wonderful intrigues and strenuous tedium of archaeology, but has also enlightened me on my strength as a woman in the field and has helped illuminate my future path as an archaeologist.

This year the field school is conducting excavations at a local site call John Moore Farm.  This site has yielded fascinating information about prehistoric Native American settlement patterns from approximately 1500 B.C., a time known as the Transitional Period here in the Northeastern United States.  John Moore Farm is located on the banks of the Susquehanna River and Native Americans used this site for seasonal camps.  Our focus is to recover as much information from this site as we can before the City of Binghamton constructs a pedestrian/bicycle walkway on top of the site.

A day in my life as an archaeologist at John Moore Farm begins with lots of sun screen and bug spray.  The site does not offer any shade and the banks of a river is a lovely home to many creepy crawly creatures.  It is very green and lush here in Binghamton and most of our test units are dug in the midst of a poison ivy forest.  All inconveniences aside, with trowel proudly in hand, I dug and toiled with the best of them.

We have opened 18 test units during the past six weeks here at John Moore Farm.  I have personally dug into four of them and have discovered exciting bits and pieces of history.  Currently, we have uncovered several prehistoric hearths that can be identified by a cache of fire cracked rock, charcoal and reddened soils.  Also, throughout the site we have found the tiny remnants of flintknapping.  Flintknapping is the ancient process of making stone tools and this process leaves behind distinct tiny flakes of stone material.  These materials have included chert, jasper, and rhyolite.  Steatite, commonly known as soapstone, is another material found at the site and was used by Native Americans in the region for carving vessels.  The chert is a local material, but the jasper, rhyolite and steatite are non-local and this offers interesting glimpses into the trade patterns of ancient Native Americans.  We get very excited when one of our team digs up an actual stone tool such as an arrowhead.  It is common to find the minute traces of the stone that was chipped away while making an arrowhead, but the Native Americans usually took the complete arrowheads with them when they left the camps so finding one still at the site thousands of years later is a real treat for us.  All ‘cool’ and unique artifacts found will immediately make the rounds among the students which, in turn, receive excited gasps and intrigued praise.  Archaeologists find happiness in the little things.

I am a part-time postgraduate student, currently working towards an MSc in Archaeological Research at the University of Nottingham, which will take two years to complete. I’ve come back to archaeology after a long break, during which time I have pursued my career in research and academic computing. However, I am still in love with archaeology so my long-held ambition to do a further degree in the subject is at last being realised and I am really enjoying it, despite all the late nights reading and working on essays after I’ve finished my day job. As a mature student, I was concerned at first that I would find it difficult to fit in. However, the staff and my fellow students have been really encouraging, which is helping to make the whole experience very satisfying.

The taught part of our course has finished for this year, so it’s now time to get down to preparing for the research work which will form the basis of the 15,000 word dissertation we must submit and which accounts for a third of the credits on our course. I’m interested in the application of scientific techniques in archaeology, which has influenced my choices of modules, including archaeobotany and zooarchaeology, and my research will be using a fascinating technique, stable isotope analysis, to try to answer some interesting archaeological questions. I am lucky that a new project based in our department has recently started — Dama International: Fallow Deer and European Society, 6000BC to AD1500 — so my research work is part of that project, analysing samples from fallow deer antlers which have been found on Iron Age and Roman sites in Britain, to see whether the results can suggest the diet consumed by the deer while the antlers were developing and possibly to infer whether they were local in Britain during that time. This has interesting implications for trade, especially during the Iron Age, when fallow deer were not living natively in this country and the antlers could have been imported as a commodity, as well as for the reintroduction of the species during the Roman period, when one or more small breeding populations are thought to have been established, for example, at the prestigious Roman villa at Fishbourne in Sussex. The results from archaeological specimens will be set against samples taken from modern fallow antlers from a known location, as a control. I’ll be doing the analysis at the NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory, at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth. NIGL has an established and illustrious track record of work in archaeological isotope work and luckily, it’s not far from where I live.

However, I first have to track down some of the known archaeological specimens, which is how I spent my Day of Archaeology. It’s proving to be an interesting challenge, as some of the excavations which have reported finds of fallow antler took place 50 or more years ago, so I have to hope that once I locate where the finds are archived, they still have the antler and that it has been correctly identified! By following connections from the literature and making enquiries by e-mail, I’m currently on the trail of some pieces excavated from an Iron Age site near Cambridge in the 1960’s and an antler found in the well of a Roman villa in Norfolk.

I must pay tribute to the helpful people I’ve contacted who are responsible for archives of material such as this, who take their time to look through their collections for obscure finds at the request of university researchers like me. Some enquiries have drawn a blank, either because of mis-identification or, while fallow bones were found, as at the Roman fort at Binchester, County Durham, the antler itself turned out to be from red deer. However, that’s all part of the research process, which is fascinating.

Assuming I can get some archaeological samples to analyse, I hope to report back next year on what the results tell us!

Centro di Documentazione Intercomunale di Archeologia Medievale e Postmedievale della Bassa Val di Cecina

Medieval Benedictine monastery of St. Maria in La Badia Montescudaio (PI)

The excavations started in 2005 and were completed in 2010, now we are completing work on the opening to the public.
The team is composed of professional archaeologists and researchers from the University of Pisa. In these months we are studying the finds (pottery, metal and bones) and organizing the archaeological record for final publication and WebGIS.

Thanks to archaeological research in the municipality of Montescudaio (PI), which started back in 2004, today we achieved a complete map of the main evidences and the most important monuments of cultural interest.
Among  these, since the beginning of the survey emerged the so called “Badia” (abbey), the Benedectine convent dedicated to Saint Mary born at the end of the XI century. Its significance is due both to the importance of the site through the centuries and to the strong connections between the monastery and the town community.
And it’s exactly in the area known as “Badia” that, since the summer 2005, with the cooperation between the municipal administation and the University of Pisa, the archaeological research is recovering the remains of this beautiful church ad the surrounding cloister.

Yuri Alese
Monica Baldassarri
Giuseppe Clemente 
Marcella Giorgio
Francesca Lemm
Cristina Otera
Silvia Rezza 
Claudia Sciuto
(Italian National Association of Archaeologists)

Bibliography:

Andreazzoli F., Baldassarri M. 2006, Il monastero di S. Maria di Montescudaio e l’insediamento medievale in Bassa Val di Cecina: nuove acquisizioni dalle recenti indagini storico-archeologiche, in Marucci C., Megale C. (a cura di), Il Medioevo nella provincia di Livorno. I risultati delle recenti indagini, Livorno, Pacini Editore, pp. 75-88.

Baldassarri M. 2008, Il monastero di S. Maria e l’insediamento medievale nel territorio di Montescudaio (Pisa), in Campana S., Felici C., Francovich R., Gabrielli F. (a cura di), Chiese e insediamenti nei secoli di formazione dei paesaggi medievali della Toscana (V-X secolo), Atti del Seminario (10-11 Novembre, S. Giovanni d’Asso), Firenze, All’Insegne del giglio, pp. 391-422.

Baldassarri M. (con testi di Andreazzoli F., Baldassarri M., Dadà M., Giorgio M., Pagni G.) 2009, Lo scavo della Badia di Santa Maria a Montescudaio, in Storia di Montescudaio, Pisa, Felici Editore, pp. 71-94.

Baldassarri M., Del Greco S., Giorgio M., Naponiello G. 2012, Il monastero di Santa Maria di Montescudaio (PI): un cenobio femminile nell’organizzazione territoriale della Bassa Val di Cecina medievale, in Atti VI Congresso Nazionale di Archeologia Medievale, Firenze, All’Insegna del Giglio, pp.

Baldassarri M., Lemmi F., Naponiello G., Otera C. 2012, Dallo studio del territorio ad un webGIS 2.0 per la Bassa Val di Cecina, in Pre-Atti Opening the Past. Archaeological Open Data, http://mappaproject.arch.unipi.it/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Poster-III_lemmi.pdf.

Welcome to another post to the Archaeology Data Service (ADS)  Day of Archaeology blog 2012

If you want a quick introduction to the ADS and what we do see last year’s post.

We have contributions from two members of staff from the ADS this year, one from Stuart Jeffrey ADS deputy Director (Access) and this one from Ray Moore one of the ADS Digital Archivists.

As a digital archivist at the Archaeology Data Service, my day to day activities involve the accessioning the digital data and other outcomes of archaeological research that individuals and institutions deposit with us, developing a preservation programme for that data, but also curating existing ADS collections.

Today, and indeed for the past week, I have spent much of my time working on the Grey Literature Library (or GLL).  The GLL is an important resource for those amateur and professional archaeologists working in archaeology today providing access to the many thousands of unpublished fieldwork reports, or grey literature, produced during the various assessments, surveys and fieldwork carried out throughout the country. These activities are recorded using OASIS (or Online AccesS to the Index of archaeological investigationS) and after passing through a process of validation and checking the reports produced in these projects arrive at the ADS. On first impressions then the digital archive may seem like an ‘end point’, a place where archaeological grey literature goes to die, but the ADS, through the GLL, makes these reports available to other archaeologists and the wider community allowing the grey literature to inform future research. At the same time as a digital archive we take steps to preserve these reports so that future generations can continue to use the information that they contain; an important job as many of these reports do not exist in a printed form.

Reports from the Grey Literature Library.

So what does digitally archiving a grey literature report entail? Initially all the grey literature reports must be transferred from OASIS to the ADS archive; the easiest part of the process. More often than not the report comes in a Portable Document Format (or PDF) form, and while this is useful for sharing documents electronically it is pretty useless as preservation format for archiving. One of my jobs is to convert these files into a special archival form of PDF, called PDF/A (the A standing for Archive). Sound’s easy, but often it can take some work to get from PDF to PDF/A (my all time record is 2 hours producing a 900mb PDF/A file). These conversions must also be documented in the ADS’ Collection Management System so that other archivists can see what I did to the file to preserve the file and its content. While OASIS collects metadata associated with project, the ADS uses a series of tools to generate file level metadata specific to the creation of the file, so that we can understand what and how the file was created. Only once these processes are complete can the file be transferred to the archive, with a version also added to the GLL so that people can download and read the report. With a through flow of some 5 to 600 reports per month the difficulties of the task should become apparent; and all this alongside my other duties as a digital archivist. This month’s release includes an interesting report on The Olympic Park Waterways and Associated Built Heritage Structures which stood on the site now occupied by the Olympic Park. Anyway I’d better get back to it!

There was a big contrast between this day’s morning and afternoon.  A large project, renewing all pipes and drains and the street, as well as implementing a district heating system is underway in the medieval town of Unterseen, Switzerland.  A small team from the Archaeological Service of the Canton of Berne is investigating the archaeology as it is being exposed by the building work.  Mechanical diggers and all sorts of building machines serve around us as hole after hole are opened and closed at an unrelenting pace.  We do a combination of a watching brief and a more traditional excavation. It is a complex construction site, one of the most challenging I have worked on.  There are many partners (firms and authorities) on site; there is little space in the old town centre for all these people and their material.  Besides, the many shops and restaurant lining the street suffer greatly from the extended work during the main tourist season.

It is thus essential that the archaeology delays the building work as little as possible.  To be able to allow some traffic we only truly excavate one of the 16 small fields (7x9m) at once.  For the remaining area we react to the construction work.  That means we document the archaeology as the builders open new sections of trenches, after which the building continues and the archaeology gets destroyed.  We thus strictly limit ourselves to excavating and recording only that which is threatened to be destroyed.  It a stressful project and only possible at all – as is so often the case – through good and intense communication between the local authorities, the various building partners and the Archaeological Service.  The scientific results are fantastic though, considering the way we work.

©Archaeological Service Canton Berne. June 2012.– Niche in a medieval wall in Unterseen, Switzerland.

We have been able to confirm the old suspicion that during medieval times, the town was not yet characterised by the `Stadthaus´ and the surrounding open spaces as it is today.  Instead we now know that, at least along the eastern side of the town, a narrow alley lined by densely packed rows of houses allowed traffic to pass through the town from gate to gate.  Of these houses, we only find the cellars.  The stone-built cellar walls are often plastered.  Some even twice, showing not only the care with which they were constructed, but also their extended use and the way they were cared for.  Stairs leading down into them and wall-niches for lamps and candles further help to bring the medieval occupation of Unterseen to life.

These new finds, however, also raise new questions.  The building work does not reach the depth of the cellar floors and it is here most finds are to be expected.  As a result it remains unknown for now what these cellars, and the houses above them, were used for.  Without finds it is also difficult to date them precisely.  However, from historical sources we know much of the small market town was destroyed by fire in 1470AD. After that it was decided not to rebuild the central part of the town, but leave open spaces surrounding a large trading house, the precursor of the current `Stadthaus’.  And indeed we see many signs of fire on the remaining cellar walls and the rubble that fills them. So it is likely the cellars date between the city’s founding in 1279AD and 1470AD.

In the afternoon I was able to meet up with a colleague to talk about the start of a next project.  Summer 2010 I was involved in another rescue archaeology project in Andermatt and Hospental just below the Gotthardpass in Switzerland.  On the site of a future golf-course, at ca. 1500masl (which must be almost finished now), we discovered a number of archaeological features, dating from the Late Mesolithic (ca.6000BC) to Early Modern Times.  The Canton of Uri, who is responsible, has now provided funds for a small post-excavation project.  We were able to excavate part of the Late Mesolithic site, Hospental-Moos, before its destruction and this now forms the heart of the project.

Mesolithic sites are relatively seldom in Switzerland and in the Alps.  But archaeologists are becoming more and more aware of the prehistoric occupation and use of the Alps.  Slowly we see more research and even rescue archaeology in the Alps.  Until 2010 no Late Mesolithic sites were known at this altitude in central Switzerland, which makes this site rather special.  The fact that practically all artefacts are made of rock crystal makes it even more special.  I am very thrilled to be able to analyse these finds.

In a quiet office, we discussed which of the many samples we had taken on site are to be analysed further. Especially at sites of this nature, it is not just the finds and the features that allow us to paint an accurate picture of the past: Soil samples can help us explain the built-up of the soil.  Charred plant remains such as seeds, e.g. from hearths, might tell us about what people ate. And like pollen-samples from the soil they can also teach us about the vegetation around the site at the time of occupation.  Charcoal samples, often also from hearths, can be used to date the site’s habitation.

So my day started on a hectic construction site, where I try to unravel the development of a 13-15^th Century market town.  It finished in a quiet office, discussing the last hunter-gatherer societies of the Alps and their environment ca. 7000 years earlier.  A challenging and varied Swiss Day of Archaeology!

These last couple of weeks have seen the biggest changes that Worcester Museum has witnessed since the 1890s. We have shared our current building with Worcester Public Library since 1896 and before that, a building across the street, but during June 2012 they have moved out of our beautiful Victoria Institute  into Worcester’s new HIVE building.

Consequently my day of archaeology has been about new and exciting developments as the museum expands into the library space, our new temporary displays and helping our colleagues as they get the HIVE ready to open on July 2^nd 2012.

Our new temporary exhibition at the museum is designed for our summer audience and is all about fantasy, film, brave princesses, honourable knights and really beautiful Anglo Saxon archaeology from our collections. We don’t have very many Anglo Saxon artefacts and those that we do have were collected by Victorian antiquarians in the main. Our technicians have been building and installing the exhibition all week – big oak doorways, crows with beady eyes, heavy iron chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. We are installing the artefacts today. There is a cruciform brooch, disc brooches and amber beads from Upton Snodsbury, a scabbard chape and spearhead from Bredons Norton, pottery, shield bosses and a beautiful Anglo Saxon bucket from Bidford on Avon that was excavated in the 1920s. Our local archaeological society, Worcestershire Archaeological Society have sponsored the exhibition for us – part of their mandate to become more involved in archaeological work of all types in the county.

Anglo Saxon artefacts from Bidford upon Avon in the new Legend exhibition

Downstairs in the space that the library used to occupy we have installed a fourth plinth (a bit like the Trafalgar Square one but shorter) and today’s residency is called Quilos and the Windmill. There is masking tape all over the plinth and it continues to grow. It’s called sitewriting and I understand it’s to do with mapping experiences and daydreams and the like. I don’t entirely understand it but I’m pleased to say that most of those around me absolutely do. We usually walk through this space without a thought but during the fourth plinth project we have a webcam filming the whole thing including the staff!

Worcester Fourth Plinth

The rest of my day is spent at The HIVE. This huge gold building that has sprung up in Worcester over the last year or so is opening on Monday. Our colleagues in Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service, Worcester Public Library and Worcester University Library have all moved into the new space. We are working on the content for the display cases. We have been given the theme of memory and we are filling cases full of nostalgia, the results of research projects and items from the collections of museums across Worcestershire. My favourite part of the displays are quotes from some of the County’s custodians of memory – the archaeologists, archivists, curators and researchers who are so passionate about what they do have been kind enough to tell us why they do what they do and why they love it. The results have been poignant and inspiring. The curator of the new Infirmary Museum talks about her responsibility to those who lost husbands, wives and parents in her ex-hospital building, The curator of Kidderminster Railway Museum describes himself as a young boy looking through the steam into the cab of an engine wishing he could be a train driver and our archivist describes the excitement and anticipation he feels when he opens a package of papers for the first time in 200 years to see what lies within it.

Hal Dalwood, Worcestershire Archaeology at the HIVE

As we leave on Friday we are exhausted but Worcester is feeling like a place full of potential for heritage services at the moment – the new HIVE building is daring and ambitious and we who are staying put in our Foregate Street building have new space and new projects and lots to look forward to.

I’m also excited as this is my first full time job in archaeology as the Project Co-ordinator for Eastbourne Ancestors. I work in the commercial world of archaeology as an osteoarchaeologist (human and animal remains) in my spare time too, as well as excavating with a local society and the Eastbourne Museum Service. Archaeology is for everyone and I strongly believe in the community aspect, getting hands on.

You can follow our progress here: http://www.facebook.com/EastbourneAncestors

Although the ‘Day of Archaeology 2012′ fell on 29th June, I was in meetings which wouldn’t have made for exciting reading…but today is a different story.

We are a Heritage Lottery Funded project run by the Eastbourne Museum Service in East Sussex. Our aim is to To fully examine all the human skeletal remains in our collection from the Eastbourne area in order to produce a demographic profile of the past populations that were living here.

The skeletal analysis will include determining the age, biological sex, stature, metric and non-metric traits, ancestry, health, diet, handedness and evidence of pathology. We will also be conducting research into migration studies using isotope analysis, physical appearance using facial reconstruction and family connections, DNA and C14.

As part of this project, we will be giving volunteers the opportunities to participate in artefact conservation, osteoarchaeology workshops, field work, study days, talks and demonstrations and much more. We will conclude the project with academic and public published material as well as an exhibition.

On Friday, Jo (the boss) and I took a road trip to Bournemouth University to deliver 30 skeletons to students to study for their MSc dissertations. We also have a student from Exeter University studying clavicles for two weeks with us for her research. In a few months time we will be taking some of the collection to Canterbury University to be studied by their MSc and BSc students too.

Today is our first volunteer day, we have 5 volunteers busily cleaning skeletal remains from an Anglo-Saxon cemetery site in Eastbourne. Each day for a month, volunteers will be helping to get the remains ready for analysis, which they will also receive training for as part of the Project.

By the 2013 ‘Day of Archaeology’ I hope to have some interesting findings to write about: Where did these people come from? Are they local? How did they live and die? What did they wear? What did they look like?

The Day of Archaeology 2012 started the way every other day this week did, in the lab.  Unlike the past seven summers, the Nuvuk Archaeology Project is spending a good bit of the summer in the lab.  We have been digging at a furious pace over those summers, because Nuvuk, site of a village occupied from Thule times through contact and up until the 20th century, the associated cemetery, and, it turns out, an Ipiutak occupation 500 km north of any previously known,is eroding at an average rate of 6 meters per year, up from an average of just over 3 meters per year around 1950.  All that digging has resulted in quite a mountain of artifacts and faunal material.  The individuals recovered from the burials are analyzed and reburied in the Barrow cemetery, but the other items remain.

We don’t take a lot of weather days during the short summers, so lab work mostly happens on weekends during the school year.  The Nuvuk crew is mostly made up of local high school students, augmented by undergraduate and grad students in summer, and they have full school days and often sports commitments as well.  As a result, we haven’t been able to process (clean, mark, catalog) everything before the next field season begins.  I decided that we should use the remaining project funds to make sure that was done and done properly. Thus, lab work.

Our crew was fairly small today.  One person who started the summer with us got a more or less permanent job, and another was offered 4 years of summer internships in the field she hopes to go into after college, and a  third just got married on Tuesday!

Trace, Kyle and Coby hard at work in the lab, cataloging Nuvuk artifacts.

Trace showing everyone a really nice whalebone pick head he is about to catalog.

Victoria takes a turn at data entry. All those catalog sheets have to be entered into the existing catalog, created in the field when we record proveniences with the theodolite.

We also have a volunteer working in the lab.  Becca Connor is an intern with the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium.  She’s also interested in socio-natural systems, particularly the possible effects of environmental change on subsistence.  She’s in the process of pulling samples of faunal material from a midden at Pingusugruk, a bit down the coast from Barrow, that was excavated with very good provenience data for faunal material.  I’ve picked a couple of units that seem to contain faunal material from the top of the midden to the bottom and don’t seem to have anything usual happening, and she’s going to ID that with my help and see if any changes are apparent.  The house the midden was associated with was abandoned & reoccupied, so we’re hopeful.

Becca asking what to do with the Styrofoam peanuts that the bags of faunal material were packed in for shipping (it was excavated in the 1990s.)

The morning passed with bags being opened, their information checked against the catalog, and the contents being sorted and cataloged.  We are using archival paper labels that we adhere with an Arcyloid solution, so that happens as another step to reduce the exposure to acetone fumes.  We do it under an extractor, so only 1-2 people can work on it, and it has to happen on the bench Becca is using.  I don’t allow materials from more than one site on a bench at a time.  Less chance of confusion that way.

The afternoon was very different.  The final nalukataq (whaling feast) of the year was being held in Barrow, so we took the afternoon off so everyone could attend.  The 5 successful captains set up a windbreak on the nalukataq grounds, and anyone and everyone is welcome to come, get fed and take some home.  The way the Iñupiat see it, the captains & crews don’t catch the whales, the individual whales have chosen to give themselves to the individual captains, who are expected to take very good care of the whale and share as much as possible out of respect for the whale. Prayers of thanksgiving are said before every round of servings.

It starts with soup (usually with bread & such) around noon, then mikiaq (fermented meat, blubber, blood & so forth) around 3 PM.  It’s very tasty when made right, and no odder than moldy lumps of curdled milk with veins of mold running through it, AKA a nice ripe Stilton.  Around 6PM there is quaq (frozen whale meat) and frozen muktuk (whale skin with some blubber attached, which is both delicious and incredibly warming on a cold day).  There is almost always a sort of dried fruit stew, apples & oranges, and if the captains and/or their wives have been able to arrange it, often special treats like frozen fish or akutaq (AKA Eskimo ice cream).

I was a bit late because I got caught up in another issue, so I missed the first course, the goose soup.  I did get there in time for mikiaq, and got 2 rounds.  The first I had some of right there with the folks I was sitting with, and it was very tasty indeed.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera & had to use my phone, so the pictures aren’t the best.

Tails and flippers set out at nalukataq for visitors to help themselves. Flags of some of the whaling captains who are hosting this nalukataq fly above the windbreak in the background.

The blanket is at the left, with kids on it between servings. Adults don’t go on it until the evening.

One thing I love about Nalukataqs is that there are always some little kids in pretty parkas playing in the sand & gravel between servings.  They just get into their own little worlds there amid all the people.

Little girl playing in the sand.

Girl playing in the gravel next to the blanket, which is on the ground at the moment.

With five crews hosting (and therefore 5 whales to share), there was a mountain of meat and muktuk.  Crews bring it from the ice cellars just before it is served.  Most of them brought in trucks, and one crew actually got a front end loader and stacked the boxes of whale in the bucket to bring them over.

Meat and muktuk being brought from the ice cellars.

Then it was shared with everyone…  There were people from other villages, at least as far away as the Kotzebue region, and people who live in Anchorage and Fairbanks, and they will take their whale home and share it even farther.

That isn’t all of the whale.  Similar amounts will be shared by these captains at the Thanksgiving and Christmas feasts, they will share on special occasions.  Of course, crew members and those who helped tow and butcher the whale already got shares when the whale was taken, and they will be sharing that throughout the year too.

Going to Nalukataq may not sound like archaeology, but whaling has been the organizing focus of this culture since before most of the sites I work on were formed.  I really don’t see how one can expect to interpret these sites without a pretty good understanding of what whaling actually entails.