Taking the floor

If you live in Dorset here is a chance to see Martin talk about his work at Chedworth Roman Villa!

 

Feeling Flat

Despite lots of pottery coming up in our trench in Grid B1 no features could be found. The stratigraphy came down on a clean blue-green clay. The only interpretation we could come up with was that people cut a shallow flat area and then created a 'hard standing' using stones, soil and domestic rubbish for an animal corral. 

The good news is that it is raining! Hopefully, in a few days we can return to the main excavation area and continue to investigate the DMV house platforms. 

 

Muck = Brass etc

A very exciting prospect for our little B1 trench. After further cleaning, this edge came up very clearly. To the left is the large slabs of stone, set in grey soil and green clay. To the right is the yellow-orange clay that we found under the small stone layer. It is a very sharp line, and we think that this stone/green clay material could turn into a fill of a pit, or even a cesspit. If that is the case we will extend the trench to find its full extent. 

This is the B1 trench, with the potential pit at the bottom. 

We had a visit from Dr Mary Sparks, our researcher of this DMV, and many other sites of the Isle of Purbeck. Saxon the dog came along too. 

Keep looking in to find out if it is a pit/cesspit!

 

Strap In For The Ride

The B1 trench, that we opened because we can't work on the main 10m square trench at the moment, has yielded lots of pottery from a very stony layer. That has now been excavated down to the clay. On the left are larger stones, that may go deeper, so that is our next task.  

This small pit was located in the NE corner. Very neat, but alas, no finds. 

This very nice saddle strap end came up whilst Hugh was using his metal detector in the B1 grid square. He had already found the several buckles shown below, in the same area. It can be dated 1000-1100.  

From this drone shot (looking SE) you can see our 10m square trench, with the 4m x 2m trench just to the north. This little trench will keep us busy until the rains come, hopefully. Top left is the rest of the DMV humps and bumps, this being scheduled. 

 

Hole Pots

These two holes in the ground may not immediately grab your attention, but they may suggest that there was an earlier settlement on this site before the medieval DMV. The pottery indicates this, but we will have an expert examine the evidence and thus give us a date for these features.  

This pottery fragment, however, is medieval, with internal glaze and nice little indents along the external edge.
 

Shining a Light on the Past

 More interesting finds from our metal detecting surveys. The two buckles add to our collection and the candle  holder is a nice little thing, that connects to our village inhabitants in a very intimate way. 

Stone me, buckle up!

 

Our first day digging the D2 trench and here is our portable HQ. All our paperwork and kit under one roof! Also good for keeping off the drizzle, if we ever get any. 

The 10m square D2 trench is very dry at the moment. As the ground is clay, this is a problem, as it is nearly impossible to get a mattock into it. It's a case of chipping away gradually. We pray to the rain gods to bring us a bit of moisture. 

However, our resident DDCAG metal detectorist has come up with two nice buckles, a fragment of something (?) and a bullet! The buckles are comfortably within the life of the DMV. 

One bonus of detecting is this stone pad, probably used to sit under a vertical post that may be structural or for a door. 

So, along with the pottery that has been unearthed all is going well, and we have just started! The next post will be images of the features. 

  

BGD 2

We also returned to the Big Garden Dig at Charmouth to undertake more Test Pitting. A second pit was dug next to the 13th century wall. 

A great deal of fun was had by all and more information was added to the history of the village. 

 

DMV for Victory!

 

This week saw DDCAG members back to our main site, the Deserted Medieval Village on the Isle of Purbeck. We returned to the area of the 5m test trench we dug last year and opened it up to 10m square. We immediately encountered several features that we will excavate in the coming weeks and months. We also collected some pottery.

This piece in particular was of interest due to the thumb decoration along the rim.

This will be added to last years haul and will give us some dating evidence for the settlement. We also found two interesting artefacts.

This piece of stone will have to be left to an expert to make an interpretation.

This is also another find that will need an expert eye.

An intriguing fragment of metal with raised decoration. It has been suggested that it is a piece of a cooking pot. This type of artefact can really make one feel that we can be in direct contact with past people. 

It's going to be a busy season. 

 

 

The 'Big Garden Dig'

Last weekend we worked with the Charmouth History Society to undertake the 'Big Garden Dig'. Several garden owners volunteered their gardens to have a 1m square test pit dug, which they either did themselves or allowed other village volunteers to do so. 

This test pit uncovered a stone drain running at the front of the property. 

Charmouth

This is a 13th century wall that runs behind the original garden plots. Although much rebuilding has been done, it still has a good percentage of original material. This trench was looking for the foundation. A 1:10 scale drawing will be made to record the exposed fabric.

Exposing the foundation.

This test pit was producing lots of finds.

This is the village hall HQ for processing the finds. 

All the finds were put into bags with the house details written on them. After analysis all finds will go back to the property owners.

It was a busy weekend and despite the heavy rain on Saturday afternoon a lot was done in the morning. Sunday was cloudy but warm and the work progressed very well. All who took part enjoyed themselves. This weekend we will be digging at several more gardens. 

 

Birds Eye View

Last weekend DDCAG undertook a geophysical survey at a site in north Dorset. As you can see, it was a large area, but the team did a great job. Roman pottery had been picked up in this field by the landowner, also metal objects using a detector.

A steady progress up and down the lanes

Logging the results

Keep going lads!

The results showed some possible features and these will be looked at in due course. 

 

 

Wool Fair

We had a very nice day at the Wool Charter Fair last weekend. Several membership sheets were taken away and we had an approach from a local photographer and drone flyer volunteering to work with us on sites!   

 

Corfe 2.0

 

Back to the garden near Corfe Castle on a lovely sunny day. We backfilled Test Pit #1 after recording and then carried on with Test Pit #2, which reached a depth of 1m, so the feature detected at that depth had to remain unexcavated. The stratigraphy being sandy, it was decided that H&S kicked in. Very frustrating. We had several more pieces of pottery come up, again looking like BBW, but this could have been redeposited from higher up the slope from the crown of the hill to the west, as the finds did not come from a secure context.     

So, we decided to open up Trench #3. This was 2m x 3m in size and we hoped that we would find some sort of feature running N-S across the lawn, according to the geophysics results. However, we only found very deep deposits and modern finds. Having dug a sondage (a small trench in one corner to inspect the stratigraphy) and finding nothing resembling a feature, or even interesting stratigraphy, we gave up and backfilled.  

Corfe Blimey!

Dorset Diggers members worked on digging test pits in a garden near Corfe Castle last week. several archaeological finds have been found in the area in the past and we now have several more!

One of the test pits.

A decorated piece of pottery, probably Romano-British.

A nice rim of similar date.

We will be returning soon to open up a 2m x 3m trench and hope to find more artefacts and features too.