Alex and Fay in a hole!
Time to tackle the mound material and the oven/kiln/hearth. With three days left we need to get as much information from the site as we can.
Ali, Alice and Carol carried on revealing a packed stone layer next to the mound layers in the east end of the site, Fay and Alex started to mattock out the mound layer to the west of the hearth/oven/kiln. Martin and Simon moved further west to find the edge of the mound. I was given the job of digging the kiln/oven/hearth.
Alex taking a level before bagging up a sample of the mound material
The black mound material
The black mound layer is quite thick and full of burnt flint, stone, ash and charcoal. As Fay dug into it she said she could smell the burning, a bit like when you clean out an old coal fire. It’s amazing, you can smell the past, for about four thousand years it has been locked up in the ground until Fay released it with one stroke of the mattock.
Fay digging out the mound
The girls working in the east end had a hard job defining the stony layer and were working very hard to get to the same black mound layer the others had. A healthy competition seems to have developed! 🙂 It’s funny how you become attached to an area and don’t want to move to another part of the site. Even if you are not finding anything it’s always a bad idea to change places with someone who is finding things. It’s like changing queues in a supermarket, it never works!
Carol, Alice and Ali working in the east end of the site
T`he stony layer on the left and the mound layer on the right
I half-sectioned the kiln/oven so we can record the different layers within it. This section will be drawn and then the other side will be excavated. One sherd of pottery came from within the kiln/oven and three more pieces from where the flue may be.
The kiln/oven after the first layer is cleaned down
- The clay layer removed and the pottery sherd is near the bright orange area
A piece of charcoal. You can see the burnt twig
The shallow section of layers in the kiln/oven
The clay base of the kiln/oven
Everyone has been working very hard. Alex and Alice are sixth-formers who couldn’t keep away from the trench, their breaks got shorter and shorter!
Alex and Alice doing a brilliant job digging the mound
Archaeology National Trust SW 
Loving it. To release that smell of burning 4000 years later.. wow.
Keep it coming!
Interesting, looks like a kiln, pottery or metalwoking?
The excitement is palpable!
I couldn’t agree more with Richard, it’s all so exciting – just wish I was there …..