Season's End

 

The Digging season has ended early this year. Although we did not find much in the way of features, especially the 'Great Seller', we have had a massive increase in artefacts, especially architectural stonework (see previous articles below). 

We were held back by lack of access to a digging machine and had to strip the 5m x 5m trench by hand, but through the hard work of our volunteers we had a successful year, considering we started late in the season too. 

The 2018 technical report has been written and copies sent to the Dorset County Council Archive and Dorset County Museum. The finds have been archived and stored by the Stalbridge History Society. The 2019 report is in progress and nearly ready to be archived. 

A big thank you to all our volunteers who dug this year. See you in 2022. 

Fancy a tipple?

The baluster glasses of the late 17th and early 18th centuries owe their distinctive style to necessity and English invention. A Georgian baluster glass owes it's existence to the slower cooling lead metal (lead crystal or flint if you prefer) developed at the Savoy glass house. The glass was not suited to the production of the earlier Venetian styles with thin and light funnel shaped bowls, although examples do exist.

I was told that this is mid to late 17th c. There is a good chance that it was handled by Sir Robert Boyle himself.

 

Keep it buttoned

Special Find of the Day:

In 1774 a foul anchor surrounded by rope edging took the place of a rose and in 1787 the same device, with the addition of a wreath of laurel leaves, was adopted for Admirals. When the Merchant Navy started to use the foul anchor device a crown was added for all naval officers in 1812. The same basic design remains in use today.

The foul anchor device itself was first recorded in use in the seal of the Lord High Admiral of Scotland in 1402. It was subsequently adopted in the Admiralty seal and by a large number of navies throughout the world. The rope 'fouling' has no specific twist and may be deemed to be correct however it fits around the anchor.

It is nice to think that someone from the navy visited Stalbridge House and then lost a button!

 

 

 

 

Get stuck in

Special/Small Finds are recorded apart from the general bulk of artefacts in UK Archaeology. This is the first of a series of SFs from the Stalbridge House excavation (1613-1823). Early forks had two tines.  

• Early 17th century - Forks became commonplace across Europe as a tool of steadying food while cutting, and in a lesser case for providing easier transfer of solid food between the plate and mouth. Majority of people still used sharply pointed knives for that purpose.
• 1630 - Forks and blunt tipped knives start arriving at colonies in North America.
• 1669 - French King Louis XIV of France banned the use of sharp tipped knives in France as a means of reducing violence. This introduced new era of blunt tipped eating knives.