Shale we dance?

You may remember the shale bangle from a previous post. The lower piece has been sitting in a damp bag since March and was finally recognised as another shale artefact. Better late than never.

 

DMV Dug Done

After finding some nice pottery artefacts, as modeled by the lovely Holly here, the DMV in the pond field is now closed.

Nice finger pinching there. 

On our last day we were taken by the landowner on a tour of the nearby quarries where the stone was worked by the villagers, mostly for building material and mortar making. Hence the stone fragments on our site. 

What a lovely view of the Isle of Purbeck countryside.

We now have a small exhibition of our site at the Langton Matravers museum. Go and visit if you are holidaying in Dorset and seeing the delights of the Isle of Purbeck. 

 

 

 

Eventful event!

 

Whilst attending the Isle of Purbeck heritage event this last weekend, where we had a display of our work at the DMV, the Bournemouth University Marine group showed us their work, as outlined by this poster.

They showed us their finds relating to the Purbeck Marble mortar vessels they had found on a wreck. This is the same material that has come up on our site. 

So it is quite possible that mortars were being made at our DMV, with stone taken from the nearby quarry up the hill. 

One very exciting find was this strange looking object found only last week.

This is a shale bangle blank. This material was used to make bangles at Gallows Gore, now Lander's Quarry, just along the road from our site, with other Romano-British evidence being found there. Shale workshops were also at Povington, Blashenwell and Kimmeridge.   

 

 

  

Ghost town?

Two more trenches have been opened and another re-cut of the medieval boundary ditch has been found. Plenty of pottery and bones too.   

However, no sign of any postholes, bedding trenches, pits or cesspits. All very strange. This area should be where the houses are located. 

We will open one more trench and hope to find some evidence of habitations.

 

Dig Day #8

 

We had a very good day at the 'office' yesterday, with the boundary ditch throwing up some very nice pottery. This may be one vessel. Probably Tudor, but could be earlier. 

This lovely piecrust rim was made by someone pinching the clay to make a decoration. The vase is flat, so it would have been like a flan dish. 

This is the base of a handle, probably of a jug. The fingers have smeared the clay so that the handle will stick to the body of the vessel.

Speaking of fingers, this is the other side of the piecrust piece, where the nails have dug into the clay when crimping the rim. It's almost like shaking hands with someone from several hundred years ago! Real time travel. 

Wool gathering

Saturday the 9th saw us at the Wool Charter Fayre. We were promoting our work on the DMV, just a few miles down the road at Corfe Castle. Although the visitors were not as numerous as last year we were very busy at the stall, with plenty of inquiries and possible new members. 

Dig Day #7

A hard slog on DD#7. The ditch system is going well, but lots of soil needs to be moved. Some nice pottery came out and at least three re-cuts have been recorded for this boundary. Also, the large pit was difficult to excavate, as the edge was very hard to find, so all that can be done is to hit it hard and hope. Messy, but that worked. The gravel fill was finally found to end at a natural clay, so it can now be finished on DD#8. 

We will be able to open the new trench soon, after completing the excavation and recording of these features.