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A Quiet Day

By on July 6, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Maritime Archaeology

The Day of Archaeology falls within the fieldwork season for English Heritage’s Contract for Archaeological Services in Relation to the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Wessex Archaeology’s marine archaeology team deliver the contract.

The principle aim of the contract is to supply information and advice to English Heritage, Historic Scotland, Cadw, and the Environment and Heritage Service Northern Ireland to enable them to advise their respective Secretary of State, Scottish, Welsh or Northern Ireland Ministers, as appropriate, about issues of designation and licensing under the Protection of Wreck Act1973.

This involves fieldwork to monitor, record and investigate designated wrecks, and assess sites that may require designation. The marine archaeology team work with the heritage agencies, licensee teams and other stakeholders.

 

Surveying a wreck © Crown Copyright, taken by Wessex Archaeology

 

Unfortunately, this week has ended up being quiet despite fieldwork being scheduled, due to bad weather.  This, however, illustrates the nature of marine archaeology, which relies on weather to provide a safe diving environment. The majority of the team therefore were in transit back from their diving locations in Wales.

One member of the team, Kevin Stratford, was already office based.  He is currently trialling the new scuba gear.  Primarily our dive team works on Surface Supplied Diving Equipment (SSDE) however SCUBA diving is more appropriate in certain situations.

SSDE© Crown Copyright, taken by Wessex Archaeology

Kevin will also help our Project Manager, Toby Gane, with some of the planning elements.  During the fieldwork season the team goes all over the country.  This requires a lot of organisation ensuring the boat, equipment and staff are ready to deploy.  The careful planning can easily be disrupted by the bad weather, which can lead to last minute changes in programme.

Lastly, Kevin will start on writing up the records of some of the completed fieldwork, for example, pulling together all the observation records made by divers on a wreck survey and reviewing the underwater video.  This information will input into an archaeological report about the work undertaken.

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A Day at Wessex Archaeology

By on July 6, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Education, Excavation, Finds, Illustration, Maritime Archaeology, Science

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.

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The Glamour of Outreach

By on July 6, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology

My name is Sarah Phillips and I head up Wessex Archaeology’s Learning and Access Team, which can involve anything from community excavations to creating online computer games and teacher packs, raising awareness of archaeology to marine industries or writing content for the Wessex website.

However, my 29th of July definitely sums up the unglamorous side of our work.  While my team were off doing interesting things out in the field – you read their blogs  A Day with Operation Nightingale and Lights, Camera, Action -  I was stuck inside doing administration tasks.

My job can be a lot of fun, but it is also hard work.  We are the public face of Wessex and so we need to ensure that what we produce is of high quality, true to the archaeology but also accessible to our desired audience.  Today, I am working on the final draft edit of the Offshore Renewables Protocol for Reporting Archaeological Discoveries annual report for The Crown Estate.  This protocol, like other marine protocols run by WA, helps staff to identify and report any unexpected archaeological discoveries at sea.

We go through several edits, considering content, interpretation and then general quality control before the final draft will be sent out for consultation. My team works closely with the graphics office, relying on them to develop our ideas and text into something interesting.

The rivetting world of admin

More project management tasks, finances, sorting out permissions for images for school a workshop, chasing up feedback from them and a billion other things – my day is not getting anymore glamorous.

However, things significantly improve thanks to Day of Archaeology. Tasked with the challenge of summing up Wessex Archaeology’s Day of Archaeology – A Day at Wessex Archaeology - I took a notepad, pen and camera and took a journey around the office.  Until recently, I worked in our Coastal and Marine department but my remit has expanded to the whole company and this was a great opportunity to talk to people and find out what they do in both Salisbury and our other offices.  It was fascinating and helped me to understand more about how the company works as a whole.  I hope it is as interesting for people to read.

 

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Archaeology is Anthropology

By on June 30, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Historical Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology

As a college student, the question of my major and future career ambition is one of those frequently asked questions that I contend with on a daily basis. Very few seemingly understand what it means to study cultural anthropology- that isn’t necessarily a value judgement, merely an assessment of my personal experiences. The FAQ takes various forms, but amounts to something like “What are you going to do with that?” or “Oh, so you’re going to be a teacher.”

One of the many docks that is part of the inventory of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

I must admit that I often ask myself the same question(s), which prompted me to participate in an internship rather than a field school this summer as part of my undergraduate degree requirements. I knew that I had to find something that interested me both as an anthropologist and as a historian.

I ended up working on a project that satisfies both of those requirements. So far this summer, I have participated in a NAS fieldschool that was held in Traverse City, Michigan and helped other underwater archaeology students with their individual projects. I have attended various organizational events as a representative of my site supervisor/mentor. But for me, one of the coolest things about this internship is my participation in a complete inventory of the historic docks and piers of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Last summer at this time, I was spending the day conducting research on a shipwreck that washed ashore in the same area in late 2010. This summer, I spent the day (once again) doing research. And while the area of historic research is not really in my scope of interest, the information that I found on one of the historic sites is rather fascinating (which for me was rather unexpected). The dock that I am researching is called Aral Dock and is one of many century old docks in the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore that has all but disintegrated into just pilings. The dock itself was rather homogeneous for the area in both build and use. Cargo such as lumber and agricultural items was loaded and unloaded at the dock and was sent on its way to various ports around the Great Lakes. Aral Dock is not interesting (for me) because of it’s construction, or materials, or rate of decay; Aral dock is interesting because of the scandal that surrounds it.

Research through local and regional newspapers as well as oral history from residents shows that there was a double homicide on this particular dock, earning it the nickname “Murder Dock”. The reason was money related- taxes, specifically- and the murder touched the small agricultural port town in a way that was unexpected for that community.  As a student of anthropology and history, this salacious history of an area that is currently considered to be quiet and relaxing for residents and tourists alike is an interesting study in local anthropology.

The area itself was a combination of industrial and agricultural, with the docks acting as a material reminder of how these people once lived and worked. What remains of the historic docks in the area is submerged in varying depths of water, ranging from shoreline depths to fifteen feet. Position fixing has been a chore, especially because of the wave action that is common in this specific bay on Lake Michigan. That is not to say that this experience hasn’t been enlightening or enjoyable. I can now say with confidence that I know what it is that I can do with my degree in Anthropology: I want to take what I have learned and apply it the field of historic archaeology, specifically sites that are underwater. Yes, I will likely spend more time in a library, museum, or historical society than I will in the field. I will likely be spending large amounts of time sifting through innumerable amounts of historic photos and oral histories as I did on the Day of Archaeology. But I have come to realize that there is no better way for me to combine my interests in history and human culture than by studying the physical material remains of the people that once occupied the most beautiful place in America.

Plus, my office will have one heck of a view. So, there’s that, too.

 

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Day of Archaeology in Macedonia 3

By on June 30, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Film Making, Maritime Archaeology

We already sent our documentary and our letter of participation. Our third post is about underwater archaeology and making documentaries for archaeological sites.

Some of our colleagues are doing underwater archaeology, so in the following video you can see their working day, little bit different of  ours working days on the field :)

NGO Archaeologica together with MA Goran Sanev and Michail Stojanovski, archaeologists from Museum of Macedonia made film about the archaeological site Golemo Gradiste – Konjuh in Macedonia. Every year this site is researched by international team of archaeologists from Museum of Macedonia and Ms. Carolyn S. Snively from Gettysburg College, USA and hers students. The film is in post production and it will be presented in about few months.

This is how we celebrated The Day of Archaeology 2012. See you next year with more informations and new archaeological findings. Congratulations about the Day of Archaeology.

NGO Archaeologica – Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

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Ceramic Sherds

The Business of Archaeology

By on June 30, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Historical Archaeology, Maritime Archaeology, Post Medieval
Michelle Touton

While surveying, you sometimes find unexpected things–like blueberries! Yum.

I’m a project manager at a contract archaeology company, which means I have to be both an archaeologist and a businesswoman.  Anathema to purists, maybe, but in the United States most archaeology is done commercially, as part of an industry called Cultural Resource Management (CRM), and businesses need people doing business-y things to keep them running.  In CRM, developers hire archaeologists and architectural historians to help them deal with cultural resources that will be affected by their development project, in much the same way as they hire environmental scientists, traffic engineers, and architects.  We work for the developer, but our first duty is to the resources.

For me, the 2012 Day of Archaeology was pretty typical.  My primary task for the day, as it has been for the last month or so, is to continue editing a site report.  The archaeologist who wrote the report works mostly on prehistoric sites, but this report is about a historic site.  Since it’s her first historic-period report, we’re taking our time with it to teach her how to do it right.  Historic-period artifacts require completely different analysis knowledge than prehistoric artifacts (e.g., learning to recognize mold seams on bottles or differentiate fabric types in ceramics, vs. categorizing edge flaking in stone tools), which takes time to learn.  You also have more lines of evidence (in the form of historical maps and records) that you need to bring in to your analysis.  Work on the report has been slow-going because I often am too busy with other things to get a chance to work on it.

The Day Begins

My first task upon getting to the office–after brewing a pot of tea, of course–is to check in with our people in the field.  Today we have two field projects going on, both of which are in the monitoring stage.  “Monitoring” means that an archaeologist watches the construction crew as they dig, in order to spot any emerging resources (artifacts/sites/etc.) before they’re damaged or destroyed.  Monitoring is usually done after we’ve already done testing and evaluation of anything we know is on site, and is largely a failsafe to protect things we didn’t know were there.

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Students and Teaching and Archives, Oh My…

By on June 29, 2012 in Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Maritime Archaeology, Museum Archaeology

Unusually mixed day here – started by doing an archaeology handling session with a school group – not something I usually do. With any mixed group, there are always some who want to be there, and some who don’t care, and some who really are not fussed. Two of the boys in the group were really keen – all the questions and quite a few good answers! Real highlight though was seeing the look on ALL the faces, when I pulled out a Bronze Age sword….(which they didn’t handle, as I assumed the teacher wanted to take all of them home again).

You can tell if a young student will get the archaeology bug, when you hand them a palaeolithic hand axe, and tell them it was made 200,000 years ago. Watch that sink in, and see the reaction :)

Got a placement student from UCL with me at the moment, and she’s doing very well – happy to lift heavy boxes, and good with kids…useful combo!

Day ended showing the placement student our painfully slow database, and stores environmental monitoring systems. Then, of course, the network came crashing down around our ears….perfect way to end a week…time to go home…

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ScARF_dayofarch2012_6

Friday fun in the ScARF office – part 2: one for the geeks!

By on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Iron Age, Maritime Archaeology, Medieval, Prehistory, Publishing, Roman, Science, Viking

The afternoon starts with some copyediting – not exactly glamourous but something which forms the backbone of publication. Although all of the nine panels reports for ScARF are now finished and available for download there is still some work to be done on text that has come in since the deadline for publication.

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ScARF dayofarch2012_2

Friday fun in the ScARF office – part 1

By on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Early Medieval, Education, Historical Archaeology, Iron Age, Maritime Archaeology, Medieval, Post Medieval, Prehistory, Roman, Science, Viking

Not even being the Day of Archaeology 2012 could bring the sunshine to Edinburgh today, so whilst the view from the office at the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (SoAS), is definitely dreich, at least reading about all this archaeology will brighten up the day!

My name is Emma Jane O’Riordan and I am the Project Assistant for the Scottish Archaeological Research Framework (ScARF) or @scarfhub on Twitter. The project took part in the Day of Archaeology last year too so you can read about the background to the project in the 2011 posts from the Project Manager, Jeff Sanders here and here.

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SeaCity Museum: Environmental Monitoring

By on June 29, 2012 in Anglo-Saxon, DayOfArch2012, Maritime Archaeology, Museum Archaeology, Roman

Today I have been doing environmental monitoring of archaeological collections on display at the new SeaCity Museum (opened in April this year). I was lucky enough to start a new job last week as Collections Care and Access Trainee for Southampton City Council Museum Collection Management, funded by the Heritage Lottery Skills for the Future scheme. So far I have had some fantastic opportunities to learn about collections and documentation and today we are focused on environmental monitoring to ensure the objects’ conditions are stable.

Tiny Tag in the Millbrook Roman Hoard display case

The museum houses a range of objects related to Southampton’s past which includes this fantastic hoard of Roman coins excavated in Millbrook, Southampton. Over 4,000 late 3rd century Roman coins were found during building work. 1,000 of these coins have been put on display for the public to view at SeaCity Museum. The coins are copper alloy and need to be monitored to preserve them in as good a state as possible. To achieve this Tiny Tags were put in cases with vulnerable objects to record temperature and humidity readings at regular intervals on a daily basis.

Next job is to download the information to create graphs and interpret if the levels are right for that particular case. These Tiny Tags can record and store data for three months so the data is logged and the Tiny Tags reset at a minimum of every three months.

Another display case for monitoring is the settlement in Hamwic case. This consists of loom weights, a cooking pot, lamp, spindle whorl, linen smoother, bone comb, whistle, ice skate and tweezers. It is important to monitor this case to keep the bone and metal in the appropriate conditions to prevent the objects from deteriorating.

Putting a Tiny Tag into the Hamwic display case

Hamwic was a Middle Saxon (c.700-850) town situated around what is now Northam and St Marys in modern Southampton. It was an important port and excavations show that many crafts and industries were practiced in Hamwic. The excavations at Hamwic have resulted in one of the best collections of Middle Saxon finds in Europe so I feel privileged to work so closely with such exciting finds!

I have a background in archaeology with a BA in History and Archaeology and a Masters in Maritime Archaeology so it has been a very interesting day learning about monitoring conditions for objects post excavation and the dimensions and concerns about displaying objects, and that has been my day of archaeology. Not all archaeological work is in the field!

Now it’s back to learning about documentation and recording and exploring more interesting objects.

If you are interested in seeing the above mentioned objects for yourself then please visit the SeaCity Museum website.

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