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Our Day of Archaeology in Montescudaio (Pisa, Italy)

By Italian National Association of Archaeologists on July 4, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Excavation, Finds, Medieval, Osteology, Publishing, Survey

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.

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Rescue Excavation at Rochlitz Castle

By Marcel Dallinger on July 4, 2012 in Archaeological Prospection, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Excavation, Historical Archaeology, Medieval, Post Medieval, Survey

June 29, 2012 – Welcome to my day.

My Name is Marcel Dallinger. I got my Magister degree in classical archaeology at Leipzig University in November 2011.

Currently I am working on an excavation in the castle of Rochlitz executed by the State Office for Archaeology Saxony.

Rochlitz itself is a medium-sized town in Saxony/ Germany.

My day starts at 6 a.m. in Sörnzig. After getting up and doing all the things that have to be done in the morning my way leads me to Rochlitz Castle which is approximately 3km away. Fortunately I own a little motorbike so the ride is rather a little trip through fields than a typical commute.

Work starts at 7am. The excavation team meets in our lunchroom. It is luckily the same room where all our equipment is stored therefore we have short distances to everything we need.

The excavation we are working on is a ‘rescue excavation’. The castle yard is about to be renewed completely. This includes new pipes for waste water, fresh water, rain water, earth-wires and all power supply lines. Finally the whole castle yard will get a new cobbled paving.

Thus our task is to excavate all parts of the castle yard which had not been excavated before- and this is approximately 70%. Most of them dates from the late Middle Ages.

The salvage of findings, their documentation and to save them from the dredger is exactly what we are doing there. But I have to say that all the other workers and especially the operator of the dredgers are very friendly and take care of us and the work we are doing. The normal dig goes on with well-known trowels. For measuring we use a tachymeter connected to AutoCad. Because of our lack of time we also do photogrammetrie. Sometimes it is better to draw archaeological records but this needs time that we don’t have. We have our morning break around 9am. After recharging our batteries we keep on revealing the secrets of history from the ground. Of course not every day we make great findings but thanks to the still opened castle museum there is a lot of public business. One day we were surprised by a visit of a television crew. But they were doing a documentary about the new exhibition in the museum so we could watch them filming and interviewing while continuing our work.

The last period of our day is from lunch break at 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. . At the end of our day we give ourselves a pat on the back for another great and interesting day working in the job with the most public Interest: archaeology.

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

A Day in Swiss Rescue Archaeology

By Marcel Cornellissen on July 2, 2012 in DayOfArch2012, Environmental Archaeology, Excavation, Finds, Historical Archaeology, Medieval, Post Medieval, Prehistory

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!

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Historic Building Recording with Aerial-Cam in Gloucester Cathedral

By Aerial-Cam on July 2, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Illustration, Medieval, Periods, Survey

We’ve been using a specially adapted tri-frame mast system to get the camera into position at various heights inside the Lady Chapel (1470). We are working with the Downland Partnership, who needed a full photographic record of the masonry and window structure for the production of accurate drawings via photogrammetry and laser scanning.

Lady Chapel, Gloucester Cathedral images from Mast-Cam.

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Digging at a Cliff Top Palace

By dberryman on July 2, 2012 in Community Archaeology, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Digital Archaeology, Education, Excavation, Historical Archaeology, Medieval, Post Medieval

This year we are now in the fourth season of excavation at the Bishop’s Palace at Downhill, on the north coast of Northern Ireland. Many people will know this site from the iconic Mussenden Temple. Over the past three seasons, we have cleared out and uncovered many of the domestic buildings of the amazing building, showing us what life was like for some of those who worked in the big house. The Palace was built in the 1770s by the Earl Bishop, Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry. During construction, the Earl Bishop was often on the continent and continually sent back instructions for alterations to the house. This has created a convoluted house that has been considerably altered; now a team of archaeologists are now attempting to understand these structures and conserve them for the future. The Palace and much of the demesne is owned by the National Trust and the whole excavation has been run by the NT archaeologist for Northern Ireland, Malachy Conway, and a team of dedicated volunteers (some professional archaeologists and some interested amateurs)

This season we have been beset by bad weather and a small volunteer workforce. Our aim this year is to prepare the West Yard for public access and to finish clearing the northern part of the East Yard. I have spent a few weeks refilling the gas holder that we spent the past two seasons excavating, it’s approximately 7m wide and 3m deep. On the Day of Archaeology, we were all digging in the East Yard, working on the entrance to an animal enclosure. Across the area, there is a scatter of sherds of white ceramic, probably plates used by the RAF when they were stationed here. This season has not yet provided any interesting finds; unlike previous seasons, which have revealed Roman statue fragments and a Bronze Age bowl. Much of our excavation has been assisted by a digger and mini-dumper, moving spoil and masonry around the site. We now have two weeks left to finish clearing the yard.

As well as volunteering with the National Trust on the Downhill Project, I’m doing a part-time PhD in medieval archaeology. My research is looking at 14th-Century manors in England, recreating the buildings through an analysis of the annual manorial accounts. Many of these sites have been lost or drastically altered, so documents are one of the few ways of studying them. I’m looking at the types of buildings that were on the manor, the choice of building materials and their maintenance. So far, I have only looked at a small number of manors, but there are already patterns emerging of high status buildings being constructed from very different materials to the agricultural ones.

On Day of Archaeology, I was translating accounts from the manor of Oldington in Worcestershire. Once you get an understanding of medieval Latin, medieval accounts are not that hard to read – they follow standard formulae and have a limited vocabulary. But they are quite fun to read, as they describe the daily life on the manor, often naming the people doing the work and describing what they are doing, you can create a vivid picture of the bustling manor and its inhabitants. This is a really interesting research project and will create a new understanding of medieval manorial buildings and their construction and repair.

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My Job? Which One?

By Sinead Marshall on June 30, 2012 in Bronze Age, Community Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Education, Finds, Medieval, Museum Archaeology, Publishing, Survey

Archaeological work comes in so many varieties it can be hard to pin down. Some people think I dig up shiny objects to send to a museum, only for them to languish on a dusty shelf forevermore. Or assume I work with little brushes in balmy, sandy environments despite spending most of my working life in Ireland. It is ridiculously green for a reason.

It’s a varied job but the questions archaeologists get asked by their friends, families and strangers on the street seem to be similar across the world.

‘Have you found any gold?’ being an Irish favourite. Or there’s ‘How do you know where to dig?’ I like this one so much I ended up doing a whole panel on it for a recent archaeological exhibition in the museum I work in.

Is an unemployed archaeologist still an archaeologist?

I say ‘work’ but none of my current jobs actually have a wage attached. Irish archaeology is feeling the recession – with archaeological employment figures apparently hovering around the national general unemployment rate. So I created my own lovely ‘jobs’ that keep me in archaeology for now.

My ‘jobs’:

Research Project Director

Being unemployed meant having enough time to do a good bit of structured research. I went back to a site that has always intrigued me and set up a research project based around it – ThORRP. Our community based project is partly funded by The Heritage Council and is managed and staffed by volunteers.

Old Ross is a medieval borough with potential for new discoveries . We’ll be using research, field survey, geophysics and LiDAR to build a comprehensive picture of the site. Surviving medieval documents compliment a rural setting possibly preserving unidentified elements of the medieval landscape – from windmills to a vineyard! The results will go into a new project website, be published in local newspapers and academic journals and we’re even giving a talk at the local Ploughing Championships.

2. Museum Assistant

New social welfare work schemes designed to help those out of work to keep busy have received a mixed reaction. However I prefer to be active and interested. Before we knew the funding proposal for ThORRP was successful I thought of what job I’d like and approached the nearest County Museum in Carlow to create a work scheme position for me. They weren’t hiring so it was the only way to get this experience – they eventually gave me a place and I absolutely love it. Working with graphic designers, writing exhibition panel text and artefact labels, coming up with floor layouts for cases and the artefacts within them was so engaging. This seems to be the job for me.

3. Archaeological Walking Tour Developer and Guide

Recently I was approached to be a part of the inaugural Kilkenny Walking Festival. I live in a beautiful medieval city – coincidentally a couple of streets away from my first dig as a student in 1994. The festival organisers, the council and a rural development charity, wanted to include archaeological tours in their festival and asked me to come up with something. Hence the Kilkenny city pointing out archaeological excavation sites type tour was born – Archaeology Beneath Your Feet. I did five of these tours in April and have just been asked to do some over the summer too. Who knows where they may lead?

So what’s a typical day like?

Working a 9.30am – 5.30pm, 5 day week in the museum weekdays now start at 7.30. A 40 minute drive from Kilkenny to Carlow or a combination of bike and train gets me to work on time. Tasks range from cataloguing and researching artefacts to attending in an exhibition space, chatting to visitors. Today no tours were booked in and I only needed to attend to cover breaks for other volunteers so I made good progress in the office.

I edited the last couple of words in an accompanying guide for volunteers on our new archaeological exhibition, ‘Journeys in Time’. I had the pleasure of working on the exhibition from its early design stages to the finished product.

A great Bronze Age artefact was handed in by a member of the public the other day so I researched and wrote up some information on it. Being the only person with an archaeological background means I get to work with some of the oldest objects in the collection.

Just before lunch I had a chat with the Curator about an upcoming Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland (IAI) Professional Development course at Tara then quickly sent off an email to book a place on it. Training budget you say? Excellent.

At lunch time I did a bit more research on the walking tour material and some work on ThORRP – adding the latest research into our files and updating the Method Statement for field-walking we’re doing in September. Having spent years as a digger a whole one hour lunch break in a clean environment is still a luxury. I’m adjusting well though.

After break I registered some new items into the museum’s book catalogue… mmm how to get funding for heritage projects, must read that one! Check arrangements for a meeting about funding for museum studies courses. Health and Safety meeting next week, noted in the diary.

Friday feeling kicking in, read some emails, no reply to the CPD course booking yet. I head home hoping there are still places left on the course and wondering what to write for Day of Archaeology 2012. The future is looking brighter.

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Making Archaeologists. Caerleon Excavations.

By David Howell on June 29, 2012 in Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Excavation, Iron Age, Medieval, Post Medieval, Roman

As ‘Day of Archaeology 2012′ sprung into life, the excavations on the Iron Age Caerleon 2012 dig came to a close. This is our final day of a brisk five day project. At the moment it’s about 8:15 in the morning, and I am looking out towards the University of Wales, Newport campus. There are clouds, lots of them, and they are not the fluffy light ones, they have a pretty foreboding look about them… The campus is roughly a twenty minute drive from our excavation site, and our team this year has been dependent on our committed core of undergraduates. I should clarify that these are history undergraduate students, rather than archaeology undergraduates. Time was, our university had a bustling and well respected archaeology department, but for a variety of reasons, we sadly lost that department, and history was left standing alone. However, there are enough of us archaeologists who survive in and near to the university, and the desire for archaeological research stands strong, even if we don’t have the name ‘archaeology’ on our department notice board anymore. A strong tenant of our excavations in the past was to train prospective field archaeologists, and that has been seen again this year, with the majority of the team being made up of first time archaeologists.

You would not know to look at them, but all five of the team members here are on their very first field excavation.

The excavations this year are just below an Iron Age hillfort (Lodge Hill), which overlooks the Roman fortress at Caerleon. We’ve been following up on a number of features, and today we are focusing on the second of our two sites, the excavation of a trackway feature. We have some great maps that suggest the length of the trackway to be pretty significant, and running in a temptingly straight line (tempting if you like Roman features that is), going straight over the top of the hillfort. Lots of questions were being asked of this feature, how was it made, how old was it, what was it used for? As the final day of our excavations proceed, hopefully we’ll be able to deal with some of those queries.

The trackway.

(…several hours later…)

Well, back home now, 6pm(ish), in the warmth of the office, feet up and in front of the computer. Those black clouds spied earlier gave as expected, and turned the majority of our ‘day of archaeology’, into a day of mini trench floods and occasional soakings. Such is the way with field archaeology. That though is not to say that our last day of excavation was in any way a negative, in fact we had quite a successful day.

First things first though, for many of the entries posted for Day of Archaeology, we have been treated to some stunning artefacts and insights. Alas, the most time consuming activity that took place on our final day, was, as is often the case for field excavation, back filling! It’s one of those questions that is often asked of us by passing visitors, ‘what are you going to do with it (the archaeology) once you’ve finished?’, the standard short answer is ‘fill it in’. So for our day in the life of an archaeologist, it was a day of hole filling, more so than it was for hole excavation (although it’s not always a dull affair as these keen excavators hopefully show)!

As some of the trenches were being filled in though, we had sunk two test pit sections through our trackway feature, which previously in the week had revealed two distinct surfaces, and in the last hour or so of the day, revealed a third. Coming down on a really compact clay surface (you can see the moment when it was revealed here), the most obvious inclusion was a wealth of charcoal material.

The discovery of this surface was one of the last acts of archaeology on site for the year. However, the questions go on. Dating from the charcoal will be next on the agenda. We only returned a few sherds of probably post medieval pottery (though it might be late, you never know) from the first two surfaces, but the charcoal may well let us take our site back much further, we’ll have to wait and see. When we do get the results though, that should go a long way to helping us tackle some of those many questions we had going into this, so it’s a great result, even if the result means that we must wait on some more results.

And so as the day of archaeology ends, so does our excavation. It’s been a blast being involved in field archaeology again after some time away, but as interesting as the excavation element has been, today, as with the rest of this week has reminded me of one thing in particular. Field excavation has a funny effect on people. There is something about going through the hours of excavation, be it in sunshine or rain, be it through the excitement of discovering a road surface untouched for however many centuries, or the frustration of sifting through yet another find free ditch (two of our team know what that is all about now), that brings people together. At the start of this week, we had probably four distinct groups of people, different backgrounds, different social groups, different interests, yet spending the week sharing the experience of field excavation, those barriers gradually whittled away. Those involved became friends, became united, and that is both a surprising but also familiarly reassuring thing about field excavation. At the end of it all, we had had a wonderful time, become good friends, and ultimately, we were united as archaeologists. Here’s hoping your day of archaeology was as good as ours!

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A detail of a portion of the belt with the mounts complete and intact, showing the lion motif

Rubicon’s Best Ever Find? Discovering A Uniquely Preserved Medieval Object

By Damian Shiels on June 29, 2012 in Commercial Archaeology, Conservation, DayOfArch2012, Finds, Medieval

Today has been a typically varied day in the offices of Rubicon Heritage; we have just this week relocated our main Irish office from an industrial estate in Little Island to a much more central premises in Midleton, where our new neighbours fix pianos! Amidst the chaos of the move and some of the less glamorous but vital aspects of running a commercial business (such as checking and authorising payments, reviewing accounts and writing tenders) there has been one real highlight that I want to share with you. As Cork experiences horrendous weather conditions and widespread flooding, the Irish Summer has been forgotten in the Rubicon offices. The reason for this is an email I received yesterday, which revealed that we had discovered what appears to be an internationally significant archaeological find.

What is particularly interesting about this find is that it is an advertisement for the wonders of archaeological conservation. During archaeological excavations for Cork County Council on a medieval castle site in Caherduggan, Co. Cork last year, we uncovered a well which contained a fantastic array of objects. Amongst the treasure trove of material that emerged from its muddy depths were a medieval leather shoe and an exquisite medieval bone die. But most interesting was a long strip of leather, with what appeared to be metal studs along its length (to read a post about when we discovered it see here). We initially thought this might be a belt, and without further ado sent it off to the conservator, Susannah Kelly of University College Dublin, to see what remained.

The leather belt on its discovery at Caherduggan Castle, Co. Cork

After months of painstaking work, leather specialist John Nicholl took possession of the belt from Susannah this week, and yesterday sent me on some photographs of the now conserved object. When I opened the attachment to view the pictures I was greeted with a jaw-dropping sight- one of the most beautiful archaeological objects I have ever come across. The images revealed a phenomenally well preserved strip of leather with buckles at each end, and hinged heraldic shields mounted along its length. Excitement spread throughout the office like wildfire and I quickly got sidetracked, spending long minutes gazing at reference material. We put up a post here to share the information, and I arrived to work this morning to find some very interesting and helpful comment and responses. What we initially thought may be a scabbard belt is perhaps more likely a decorated medieval horse harness, undoubtedly the best preserved ever found in Ireland (and quite possibly Britain as well). All that normally survives of these decorated trappings are single harness pendants, but here we have a virtually complete example!

The well preserved buckle still attached to the leather, and partial pendants

I began this morning with a look through my trusty copy of The Medieval Horse and It’s Equipment to learn more (meanwhile bombarding an equally excited specialist John with questions!), and it appears we really may have something special with this find. Indications are that in the 13th century the use of these pendants on horse equipment became more numerous, but were in decline by the end of the 14th century- this may suggest a potential 14th century date, which would tie in with our other objects from the well. Next I fired off an email to the Office of the Chief Herald in Dublin to see if they could tell me anything about the heraldic symbol on the pendants, which appears to be a lion. They informed me that a lion rampant is associated with the O’Keeffes, a Cork family, although there is no evidence as yet that the object belonged to them. They also pointed out that on the Caherduggan pendants the lion is facing the opposite way to what would normally be expected in heraldry (described as lion counter-rampant or lion rampant to the sinister), making it a rarity. Contact with the National Museum of Ireland revealed that they have a collection of individual pendants that have been retrieved from illegal metal detectorists, so we now have the always enjoyable prospect of a trip to the Museum to have a look for some parallels. I also took a few minutes to look through the Portable Antiquities Scheme database to discover if there were any parallels in the UK (to have a look at the results I got see here).

A detail of a portion of the belt with the mounts complete and intact, showing the lion motif

We have barely scratched the surface of uncovering the story of this beautiful and potentially unique find, and there is undoubtedly much more to add before we are finished. However, for today we are still trying to get to grips with the excitement of the discovery, and are busy getting experts together so we can explore all the possibilities- all in all a very good day to be in the Rubicon office! To follow updates on this object and other work we carry out you can check out our blog at www.rubiconblog.com!

The other buckle with complete hinged pendants visible

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The Bitterley Hoard – Day of Archaeology Blog

By Peter Reavill on June 29, 2012 in Anglo-Saxon, Day of Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Early Medieval, Excavation, Iron Age, Medieval, Museum Archaeology, Periods, Post Medieval, Prehistory, Roman, Romano-British, Viking

Dear followers of the Day of Archaeology,

I hope you have found some my posts interesting today – just wanted to say thanks for reading them and also thanks to Dan Pett and Lorna Richardson (and the rest of the team) for doing lots of the organising for this social media event.

If you want to stay up to date with what’s going on at the PAS keep an eye on our blog and news pages

http://finds.org.uk/blogs/

http://finds.org.uk/news

That’s all from me for this year

All the best

Peter

Peter Reavill

Finds Liaison Officer Shropshire and Herefordshire

Portable Antiquities Scheme

peter.reavill@shropshire.org.uk

Blog: http://finds.org.uk/blogs/themarches/

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Old Uppsala and Beyond

By Asa M Larsson on June 29, 2012 in Anglo-Saxon, Commercial Archaeology, DayOfArch2012, Early Medieval, Excavation, Iron Age, Medieval, Osteology, Prehistory, Viking

Kerstin Westrin and Jonas Wikborg, assist projectleader, excavating a pit house at Old Uppsala. Olle Heimer is looking through the contents of the floor layer. Photo: Asa M Larsson

Rescue excavations – the curse and boon of our profession. We may bleed for the heritage sites that are lost forever, but without the expansion of modern society we would get very little chance to peek into prehistory on a grand scale. This summer there are a lot of archaeologists crawling around Gamla (Old) Uppsala in Sweden, the idyllic suburb north of present day Uppsala, where the impressive great burial mounds of some undisclosed Iron Age VIPs still stand.

Urbanisation came late to this part of Northern Europe, but Uppsala was probably one of the first places in Sweden where this happened, sometime in the Early Middle Ages (or Late Iron Age as the period is still called here in Scandinavia). Exactly when – and how – is a matter of fierce debate, so you can imagine the gleeful joy with which archaeologists here greeted the fact that the railroad drawn straight through Gamla Uppsala needed to be expanded. It’s a massive project involving thousands of square meters of Iron Age and Medieval settlement sites as well as an Iron Age cemetery. It is also one of the most protected heritage areas in Sweden, so the project is a collaborative effort involving our own firm SAU, the Uppland County Museum, as well as the archaeological unit of the National Heritage Board. The more the merrier!

Sofia Prata, osteologist at SAU, is excavating a burial urn with a cremation from the Viking Age cemetery at Old Uppsala. Photo: Asa M Larsson

Not that I get to stick my fingers into the rich, dark culture layers with amulet rings and bear claw clasps, stuck behind a desk as I am doing administrative work as usual. But I manage to sneek out now and then and visit my colleagues in the field. So far the SAU team have found parts of a smithy and several pit houses, as well as long houses from the Vendel and Viking periods (c. 550-750 CE and 750-1050 CE respectively). The cremation cemetery that was identified in a field during last year’s test excavations has turned out to be much larger and more well preserved that we had expected – which is fun but, as we all know, also a bit of a headache for the County Museum that oversees the excavation. The osteologists from SAU will have their hands full, analysing all the cremated human and animal bones.

Celebrating with ice coffee and cherries – ’cause we earned it!

Still, contrary to popular opinion not all archaeologists are out in the field during the summer. Some have been chained to their desk to finish up a report on sites in that we excavated a few years ago. These Bronze and Early Iron Age sites and burials in Northeastern Uppland were established during a perod where the region changed from archipleago, to coast, to inland due to the shore displacement going on since the end of the Ice Age. Today we were frantically double and triple checking the text and illustrations before handing in the manuscript to the Uppsala County Board, who will decide if it can be published.

Afterwards we celebrated. On Monday we continue with other projects at hand, or in a few cases, actually take a vacation…

If you find yourselves in the vicinity of Uppsala this summer and autumn, be sure to visit us – we have guided tours in English as well.

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