Ovingdean x 2

My Brony

As English weather willed it, rain and thundershowers threatened our day. A few archaeologists remained optimistic as we huddled in a car and then under the entrance to the 13th century church munching on crisps. The horses were inquisitive more than usual today, one of them following John Funnell (temporary supervisor today as the other John is away in Sheffield) around the enclosure as he cut the tall grass that is rapidly invading our trenches.

Archaeology is never just about finds and digging, it involves weather, transportation, local wild life, stories, jokes, elevensies, lunch and tea, equipment failure, late archaeologists, lost archaeologists etc..


I was put back into the new trench (550-1), the one that was recently opened as a longer slot for the young archaeologists club that visited a few weeks ago. In this trench, I removed quite a bit of large chalk pieces in addition to large flint nodules. Some sections were quite hard packed and I found a fragment of rusted glass, pottery, fire-cracked flint, p-grit, fragmented bone. The hard packed chalk may indeed be some type of feature but more of  it needs to be cleared away in order to assess the section better.

May 21st I was up there again but forgot my camera so no photographs were taken. Not much to say about this day except that I was put back into my old trench (555). My notes say : dirt, 1 large nail, bits of red pottery, fragmented bone, oyster shell and shell that was moderately sorted (25%) and sub-angular. Underneath this context I found: lots of small stones (flint, chalk), fire-cracked flint, shell, fragmented bone and pottery (black and red), fragmented nails with a sandy loam and 40% poorly sorted sub-angular stones.

Oh yes, possible post-pipe feature. Flint nodules surrounded the south-east edge. Mainly dirt in centre with chalk slanting down from Section C-D. Small finds included - fragments of bones and pottery, fire cracked flint and a possible piece of carved flint.

Will head back on Wednesday to continue to create more questions than answers.