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. 

 

Presentation

 

DDCAG was formed to work in and for local communities. As a result we always take the opportunity to promote our work to as many people as possible, so Chris was given the task of presenting the latest excavation news to the people of Langton Matravers alongside Dr Mary Sparks, who has done a great deal of research into the history of the settlements on the Isle of Purbeck. 50+ people turned out. 

Dig Day #6

Last year we cut a couple of slots through the large north-south ditch, which may well be ditches, as it looked like one or two re-cuts had taken place, but due to adverse weather conditions it was hard to be definitive about it. This year it is plain that the re-cuts are real. The material in this section of ditch, as seen here, is very dark and the sharp line is seen cutting through the yellow clay. We have had some nice pottery from this fill, so we will be able to date this cut, which looks to be the latest event. 

This ditch is the boundary between house plots, so is very important in understanding this settlement. Our next step is to find any evidence of the houses themselves, so that we can then see how big they were.