Here we are, the last photo blog from this year – an artsy best of finale. Hope to see you all again in 2013!
Day 5: The End…
Well folks, this is almost it. This entry charts the closing moments of the excavation, the final rain sodden, muddy clay covered minutes as the final trench was filled, and exhausted bodies assembled to ponder the weeks achievements. One more official photoblog to follow tomorrow, more of a ‘best of’ collection, but for now, here are the closing images of the Iron Age excavations 2012.
Much of this blog will focus on back filling…sorry, not the most thrilling of subject matter.
Recording of the final features to be uncovered.
There is a surface at the bottom of that tiny section.
As the day wore on, and the trench filled up, increasingly the back filling became a spectator sport.
The team plough through the last remnants of the spoil heap.
General satisfaction is found in the trench finally being filled.
And to round it all off, a very happy looking excavation team assemble as the dig comes to a close.
Day 5: The afternoon
As the final day developed, it increasingly became a story of shower dodging as the rain that was promised all week, that until that point had failed to show, decided to play catch up and dump a weeks worth of the wet stuff on us all at once!
A view from back filling on Horsefly Hill…wet and misty.
Work on the sections became pretty heavy going affairs, as the clay began to melt with the rain.
Leading the back filling despite the damp conditions.
Dave (I think) carrying on with the test pit, and as you can see, it was not ideal conditions.
Great colour on display here as the clay slowly dries out.
As the weather improved, the test pit went down, and then down some more, as a charcoal dominated surface emerged.
Iestyn comes to inspect the new surface, shimmering as a beacon in that fetching fluorescent number.
Day 5: The Morning
Final official day for this blog (written with a hint of sadness, and a touch of relief knowing that without the digging, those very early starts will disappear as well), and we’ll try and do this in three parts, telling the story of the last day. Our day of archaeology contribution largely covered the days proceedings, which was dominated by back filling of the trenches, but plenty of other things developed during the course of the day, which we will try and show now with part 1: the morning. (Sorry that some of these are a little blurry.)
The day started with emphasis falling on a final two test pits, the chase for natural goes on!
All eyes on the action – with only two test pits to focus on, there were more ‘supervisors’ than usual on display.
There will be lots of shots of Iestyn in increasingly confined spaces in this particular blog, as he goes through the trackway surface.
Dave continuing to the last, despite the broken neck – impressively he saw out this day by giving a public talk on community archaeology, seriously impressive commitment to the archaeology cause!
Bless ’em, our expert ditch diggers, these two started in a ditch, finished in a different ditch, and saw little of anything else, yet kept coming back for more, well done!
And finally for the morning, another of Iestyn, in a slightly deeper test pit, and another of Adam ‘supervising’ proceedings.
A Day of Archaeology
Here is our entry for the wonderful day of archaeology event:
http://www.dayofarchaeology.com/making-archaeologists-caerleon-excavations/
Day 5: Last Minute Features
Day 5 was a bit of an archaeological classic in many respects. As back filling was underway, with an end of final day deadline closing in, a third significant surface came through in two sections. Having uncovered two distinct road/track surfaces, some way below we came across a densely compacted layer full of charcoal material. Not enough was exposed at the end of the day to really say what was going on, or how old the surface is, but plenty of charcoal samples will be winging their way for dating (when we find some funds to pay for the lab work!). Here is the moment when the surface emerged, caught on camera (excellent timing – about 40 seconds into this VT).
Day 5: How much fun can you have back filling?
Well, plenty to cover today as the Iron Age Caerleon 2012 dig drew to a close, but we thought we would start near the end today with some VT from the back filling of trench 2 (the very, very long trench), where the answer to the eternal question of ‘how much fun can you have back filling?’ would appear to be, quite a lot!
Day 4: Great Progress
Trench 2 has proven to be the real star of the show this year, with an excellent roadway/droveway/trackway feature developing on multiple surfaces. Sections galore offered a fine range  of further dateable material. Nothing Roman, which would have been nice, but you never know, there is still time tomorrow…
Planning of the features.
Dave continues to do outstanding work, despite the battered neck!
You can really see the trackway running through this shot.
The section running across the top of the image here, and the feature running on through.
Meanwhile the geophys team trundles on in the adjoining field.
Reaching the end of the day.
Tidy and ready for illustration, one more section to go here before back fill.
Final pondering and deliberation on day 4, before retiring to respective pubs.
Day 4: Have they earned the title ‘archaeologist’ yet? We think so!
What do you think? Five field archaeology novices on display, yet after almost a week, we reckon they look the part now.
Day 4: The End of Horsefly Hill
Well, it’s just about closing time on Horsefly Hill – and it has not treated us well. On top of the fact that very little came out of our two trenches, the cows got in last night…
Yesterday, this was a neat and tidy trench, all set for planning, and this morning, it had been trashed by cattle!
As well as wrecking the trench, the cattle also made a riot of the turf and spoil tip – making back filling a proper nightmare.
However, even though the archaeology was heavy going, a final lunch on Horsefly Hill went down well.
And trench 1 showed up some nice colour change in section, not a natural feature for sure, so after four days we did have ‘some’ archaeology in the end!
A wave goodbye, as final plans are drawn of trench 1, the final act on Horsefly Hill.
Iron Age Caerleon 2012 