17th May 2018 - just 'nother day

Today, Thursday 17^th May, the weather is misleadingly sunny, despite being almost sub-zero temperatures and gailforce winds, and the dig continues at Whirlow.

Activities today included:

• ·        Geophysics
• ·        Geochemistry
• ·        Floatation
• ·        Trench cleaning and recording
• ·        Experimental Archaeology
• ·        Finalising test pits

A new addition to today’s happenings included the arrival of a psychic specialist to aid us in our efforts. With his own Media team- our competition ;)- he applied his special skills to gather archaeological findings of his own, without needing to do any digging and using only the power of his mind. We can only hope that we are as good at figuring out what occurred in that field as he is.

Our largest test pit, now 2x2 metres wide after being opened up earlier in the week, upon the grass-field seems to have our supervisors excitingly stumped at its findings. What has been found after excavating deeper over the past handful of days now appears to be signs of a possible fire pit, due to the positioning of the rocks as well as burnt sediment within the soil on the side of the initial test pit.

Situated in the Long Lane field, ideas and actions for the Experimental Archaeology side of Whirlow appear to be coming into fruition. By using methods employed in the past such as building the roundhouse, we will be able to better understand our findings and how the area was once used in human history. Experimental archaeology is a good way to have our theories on the happenings of the site proven, or in some cases, disproven. 

Lastly, let us not forget about the cute animals that call Whirlow Hall Farm Trust home. They both add to the lively atmosphere as well as create the occasional chaos on the archaeological site, eg. Breaking into our trenches and leaving big squishy surprises behind for us to clean up the next morning. Unfortunately we have no pictures of this, however you can take our word for it, we would not lie about should a “serious” matter.

More updates to come tomorrow as our time at Whirlow Hall Farm Trust draws to an end L

Wednesday 16 May 2018

Day 10

Tasks for the day include:

• geophysics
  
• test pitting
• flotation 
• excavating

It rained overnight and during the day has been considerably colder than preceeding days with light showers and cloud cover which, while making everything just a smidge more depressing, has allowed for much better visibility in the trenches.

After 9 days of work in the grass field, 2 discoveries of flint were made, one of which was in trench 7 whilst the other was in test pit 49.

In trench seven, 3 further excavations have been created within the greater trench in an attempt to more completely understand the form and morphology of the structure that seems to have been discovered. The dry conditions of the days before this has lead to a difficulty in visibility due to the amount of dust.

On the western edge of the grass field, the test pits being dug were considerably deeper than in other areas of the farm. Whilst most of the pits yielded nothing but clay pipe and pottery fragments, some features had been discovered which could be a hearth. As well as this, a piece of flint as discovered.

The time travellers have been excavating trench 11/12, they have so far found the possible remains of a wall and a possible posthole. They have also found multiple pieces of flint and pottery as well as two long clay pipes possibly dated to the 1940’s and the top of an old Henderson’s relish bottle.

In the experimental field test pits continued to be dug on the anomalies seen on the geophysical survey. So far post-medieval clay pipes, ceramic and glass as well as a possible piece of flint were uncovered.

In the four acres field geophysical survey continued to take place. The field was chosen for its close proximity to the grass field where the main excavation is taking place. So far an anomaly has been found in the lower-right hand side of the field and it is unclear if this is manmade or natural.

Floatation proceeded today in order to find anything missed on the main excavation, as of now small amounts of metal works, roman metals and charred objects/pottery have been found.

In trench 6, trowelling commenced in the hopes of finding more flint and cleaning the surface but unfortunately, the only discoveries were that of clay pipe fragments.

For more information visit: https://www.archaeologicalresearchservices.com/projects/whirlow-hall-farm/ 
information visit:https://www.archaeologicalresearchservices.com/projects/whirlow-hall-farm/

In trench 9 cleaning was taking place in order to try and expose a possible gateway or entrance to the enclose, unfortunately no significant finds were made.

Tuesday 15th May 2018 day 9

Day 9

Today is also a sunny and hot day but students have done a good job. While old tasks were going well, some new tasks were began at different fields.

Generaly tasks today include:

•Geochemistry 

•Test pitting 

•Geophysics 

•Recording(photos &drawing)

•General finds cleaning.

On the grass-field, the work of test pitting in trench were continued as previous day. Students opened three new test pits with Tim. Others were focusing on cleaning the top soil of old test pits. Some test pits were expanded and dug deeper which show different color of nature and artifacial soil.

In trench 7, the students finished cleaning sureface and took photographs. In trench 8, they were drawing the trench surface. Trench 9 was probably an entrance or gate so students expanded to 1 meter in length and 0.5 meter in width.

Geophysics & Geochemistry kept working on new grass-field and they did well.

Clear difference between nature and artificial soil

Concentrating on drawing

Expanding work in trench 9

Taking photographs in trench 7

Finding in trench 9(part of arrow head)

Thursday 10th May 2018 Day 4

Day 4 
With some jobs being continued into day 4, new tasks also had to be undertaken in order to start work on the newly dug trenches.

General tasks today include:

• Floatation
• Test Pitting
• Geochemistry 
• Starting the first load of work on the trenches 
• Geophysics

The day started with heading over to the floatation area to see how the students were getting on. After having a slight bump in the road with the water not working yesterday, it was great to see the students were able to continue their work, even getting 18 buckets of soil! Unfortunately, after 18 buckets, the water was stopped for unknown reasons again, and work took a slight break.

 

Up on the grass field, work on test pits continued and major trench work began in trenches 4 and 5. After a full day of being in the test pits, one student found a bone which excited them... before Clive from Archaeological Research Services gave the suggestion of a possible chicken bone. After washing and cleaning yesterdays test pit finds with water and a toothbrush (being extra careful); interesting items such as led and glass were found in pit 41, and pit 43 included rusty nail and bits of ceramics. In trenches 4 and 5, work began on troweling and cleaning the surface and edges, whilst looking closely at any interesting items they may brush past. On last check in, trench 5 had found a not yet seen before on site piece of unique metal in a weird shape, but nothing extremely old!  Within both trenches 4 and 5, bits of pottery and clay pipes were present in both. 

Checking in with the geochemist's, an hour into the day (and continuing on with yesterdays work), they had finished! This means they had managed to analyse the whole area of the grass field, looking at the soil composition and what this means for the previous years.

The geophysics team today had results that show a possible roman enclosure within the grass field. We have begun excavating for a possible neolithic henge!

Some students working on trench 4 today.

Getting their hands (slightly) dirty, the floatation team were working hard.

The volunteer time traveler's, working on trench 6, finding a glass bottle neck so far.

Trench 5, taken at a longer angle so that we could fit the entire length in!

The geochemistry team relieved to have finished the whole of the grass field.

Pieces of ceramics found in trench 5.

Wednesday 9th May 2018 Day 3

Day 3 

The sun was shining once again and everyone was enthusiastic to start their new tasks. 


Key tasks taking place today:

• Test pits 
• Geochemistry 
• Geophysics - electrical resistivity surveying 
• Flotation 
• The cleaning and restoring of excavation trench 1 
• Experimental archaeology 
• De-turfing 
• General finds cleaning

  The morning started with the de-turfing of the grass field to potentially find evidence of a henge monument. The smaller scale de-turfing took place in the experimental field where test pits were being dug by the students. Cleaning took place in the Turkey shed following test pits on day 2.

A new task for day 3 was to appoint a media team. Today saw the creation of new Sheffield archaeology at Whirlow instagram and twitter accounts documenting the different activities happening around the farm. This account will be handed over daily to new teams to record the progress of events over the following weeks, give these a follow for more regular updates. Tag #digwhirlow to find more posts and share yours with us.

   

De-turfing taking place in the grass field 

Small scale de-turfing taking place in experimental field for the test pits 

Clean up happening at trench 1 

Roger Doonan hard at work mapping the chemical concentration of the soil 

Students enjoying the sunny weather while having a break for lunch 

General cleaning of some of the artefacts found in the test pits in the grass field 

Disaster struck as the water supply broke at the flotation station, but trusty Colin managed to fix it and save the day. 

1700s lead glazed wheel thrown pottery found in the test pits on day 2 in the grass fields 

Tuesday 8th May 2018 DAY 2

Day 2 saw the start of work proper at Whirlow.
The day started with a welcome from Dr Clive Waddinton, director or Archaeological Research Services, our professional partner. The opportunity for students to work alongside professional archaeologists engaged in commercial practice brings a very real sense of purpose and professionalism to the field-school.

Key tasks today involve

• setting up of trench's ready for machine de-turfing tomorrow (students working with ARS geomatics expert Caitlin)
• starting off the test-pitting campaign in Grass Field (Tim Cockrell--see Tim's book here)
• undertaking geophysics in the Experimental field (Dave Inglis--See Roman Roans project here)
• developing Trench 1 (IA/Roman enclosure) as a tangible heritage resource for farm visitors
• starting the experimental post alignment and continuing work on the prehistoric house reconstruction.

Tim Cockrell taking students through the process of test-pitting

Colin Merrony discussing the challenges of consolidating excavated sites and their value as learning resources.

Level 1 student begining Test Pit survey

Grass Field outlined in Red. This area will be the site of excavations of anticipated Neolithic features. Geophyiscs and fieldwalking have indicated the presence of a ditched enclosure and linear alignments. 

 The first day of geophysics started in the Experimental Field

Monday May 7th 2018 DAY 1

Today is the first day for the University of Sheffield's 2018 Archaeological field School. The field-school is based at Whirlow Hall Farm and is a collaboration between the farm, Archaeological Research Services (ARS) , a local community group- Time Travellers and  The University of Sheffield.

The field-school builds on many years of successful collaboration with ARS and The Time Travellers and aims to extend the exploration of the farm estate to better understand the presence of archaeology on site and to work towards its continuing development as a heritage asset for local communities and schools.

Reports on work done to date can be found here

The field-school has started on the hottest Bank Holiday on record and students began with their orientation tour. The farm extends over 140 acres and is situated on the edge of the UK's first national park.

     Aerial photograph showing known sites at Whirlow Hall Farm. Area to be investigated in 2018 shown in red (Grass Field).

This season plans to extend the program of test-pitting coupled with the excavation of a range of anticipated Neolithic features in the "Grass Field". In addition a range of surveys will be undertaken. The field-school will also include an experimental dimension to provide opportunities for students to explore ideas about archaeological features and materials and to better familiarize themselves with the range of archaeological deposits and processes that they encounter.

Day one was spent touring the Farm estate and reviewing known sites

Some respite from the sun was found in the pleasant shade of the Limb Valley

Dave Inglis (former UG notw fudned PhD student) informing Yr1 students about the Roman Road network around Whirlow Hall Farm

The blog will be updated on a daily basis by students so do come back to see what is going on down at the farm.