This is the final result of a number of artefacts found in Square A1. We conducted a bit of a reconstruction/restoration project today, which involved Zac gluing himself to the table at least 7 times. It is a Mesoamerican Effigy Vessel, so the next part will involve getting a relative date/sub-region from it, so that will be a bit of fun.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Jedi Council
This is the final result of a number of artefacts found in Square A1. We conducted a bit of a reconstruction/restoration project today, which involved Zac gluing himself to the table at least 7 times. It is a Mesoamerican Effigy Vessel, so the next part will involve getting a relative date/sub-region from it, so that will be a bit of fun.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Fashion in the Field
Horace: Today we have the dubious privilege of interviewing one of this year’s frontrunners in Fashion in the Field, Jester. Jester, could you describe to our online readership your retro 1980s look?
Jester: Well Horace, clearly OHS is a big part of working on site but you shouldn’t let it cramp your style. Take, for instance, my designer safety goggles…
H: Yes, Jester, I’m sure we’re all dying to learn where you acquired those jewels.
J: In a moment of light-fingered fantastic at a rave, I spotted someone sporting these beasties, and I decided I simply must have them. Fashion is a cut-throat industry, you know.
H: You mean…?
J: Next question.
H: We noticed the length of your shorts artfully highlighted the radiance of your orange socks. Could you enlighten us as to the decision making behind this?
J: OHS tends to focus on the body core, but I’ve always had an uncommon attraction to my feet. Socks have been relegated for too long to the dustbin of archaeology. My vision is to enlighten the archaeological world of the endless possibilities that socks can offer. In fact, my pet project is a new line, made exclusively from my own facial hair, guaranteed resistant to the hot Australian sun, and… with complimentary steelcaps.
H: I’m sure you all benefited from that exclusive excerpt from none other than the Jester. Looking forward to next week – the Ponce who would be Mexican, and Seven Super Secrets guaranteed to help you find the archaeologist within.
Skeleton in the hearth - NE quadrant
Sunday appeared sunnier than it was due to the chance for Los Increibles to finally knock out the hearth. The boys (being boys!) flocked after David when he mentioned looking for a ‘big pick’ and all enjoyed the demolition. Before removing the hearth, a time-consuming excavation all around the hearth had been necessary to fully expose it. The soil under the hearth was similar to that in front, which had yielded no artifacts, so we decided to use picks rather than trowels to remove it… only to find a bone as we began brushing it clean for a photo.
This prompted a vague memory from Jo, of a tradition in England of burying a cat under the hearth for luck. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but we had somewhat of a bone to pick as the fine tools came out and we delicately exposed more of the skeleton. We were specifically trying to determine if it was articulated (indicating buried whole) or if the bones were all jumbled – one source described such cats as being mummified, so we kept our eyes peeled for any skin.
Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones, having carefully revealed the stratigraphy of a dirt floor overlying a clay base excavated the post, the remaining part of the floor and the clay base rapidly given the lack of finds. The only possible finds were some squarish lumps of wood and a yellow stone. The floor in their squares seems consistent with that in our squares, so we now have a valuable guide as to what lies beneath our excavation. The Rolling Stones have now ceased excavation in order to examine their finds, while tomorrow Los Increibles will lift out the skeleton.
All enquiries regarding missing cats should be directed to the Archaeology Department, La Trobe University.
This prompted a vague memory from Jo, of a tradition in England of burying a cat under the hearth for luck. Curiosity may have killed the cat, but we had somewhat of a bone to pick as the fine tools came out and we delicately exposed more of the skeleton. We were specifically trying to determine if it was articulated (indicating buried whole) or if the bones were all jumbled – one source described such cats as being mummified, so we kept our eyes peeled for any skin.
Meanwhile, the Rolling Stones, having carefully revealed the stratigraphy of a dirt floor overlying a clay base excavated the post, the remaining part of the floor and the clay base rapidly given the lack of finds. The only possible finds were some squarish lumps of wood and a yellow stone. The floor in their squares seems consistent with that in our squares, so we now have a valuable guide as to what lies beneath our excavation. The Rolling Stones have now ceased excavation in order to examine their finds, while tomorrow Los Increibles will lift out the skeleton.
All enquiries regarding missing cats should be directed to the Archaeology Department, La Trobe University.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Jedi Council Update.
Thursday 16th September:
Today started out with making sure our levels were correct from the excavation on Sunday.
With this done, work started on removing the blackened/charcoal layer to the plaster floor beneath.
The floor was very dilapidated in square A1 and was very difficult to keep intact. It had some small sherds of terracotta, that appear to be consistent with earlier finds.
Not to mention, somebody, not naming names (cough* Zac), inadvertently caused a cave-in on the northern wall, removing a broken bottle from situ.
Square B1 was a bit deeper and had a heavy concentration of plant roots. With few artefacts uncovered and the end of the day drawing to a close. An unusual excavation technique was employed (I am unaware of any precedent for this), we have dubbed it 'The Rolling of the Turf' and it worked a treat.
Having exposed the whole Mesoamericanesque plaster floor, we covered it over with a tarp and let it stay until next week, when we make our final clean-up.
Today started out with making sure our levels were correct from the excavation on Sunday.
With this done, work started on removing the blackened/charcoal layer to the plaster floor beneath.
The floor was very dilapidated in square A1 and was very difficult to keep intact. It had some small sherds of terracotta, that appear to be consistent with earlier finds.
Not to mention, somebody, not naming names (cough* Zac), inadvertently caused a cave-in on the northern wall, removing a broken bottle from situ.
Square B1 was a bit deeper and had a heavy concentration of plant roots. With few artefacts uncovered and the end of the day drawing to a close. An unusual excavation technique was employed (I am unaware of any precedent for this), we have dubbed it 'The Rolling of the Turf' and it worked a treat.
Having exposed the whole Mesoamericanesque plaster floor, we covered it over with a tarp and let it stay until next week, when we make our final clean-up.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
SW quadrant
Slice of Life:
Thursday the 9th and Saturday the 11th of September...We started out by listing the tasks that needed to be done so that we had a clear plan ahead. We took levels then began excavating, this revealed several more artefacts and the outline of the brick drain became more apparent. We are excavating by contexts and uncovered soil changes as excavation went along so we had to assign a few new contexts such as 153 (which appears to lay above the drain's suspected path) and also directly below context 153 was a new mottled soil colour which we assigned 155 (only discovered near the end of the day).
Thursday the 9th and Saturday the 11th of September...We started out by listing the tasks that needed to be done so that we had a clear plan ahead. We took levels then began excavating, this revealed several more artefacts and the outline of the brick drain became more apparent. We are excavating by contexts and uncovered soil changes as excavation went along so we had to assign a few new contexts such as 153 (which appears to lay above the drain's suspected path) and also directly below context 153 was a new mottled soil colour which we assigned 155 (only discovered near the end of the day).
Jedi Council:
Sunday the 5th of September
The day began in square B1 where we removed the historical layer located to the north-east of the brick drain that ran through both A1 and B1 by bringing this level down to the base of the drain bricks we were able... to locate what we have concluded to be the cut of the drain. The cut included a sandy-orange fill in which we found a small ceramic piece that included a markers mark which can now be used to form an earliest po
ssible date for the drain. Both the north-east and the south-west sides of the drain were excavated down to sterile ground before any bricks were removed. No artefacts were found in these areas so we proceeded to excavate the brick drain (probably the best part of the day hehe). To begin with we removed eight bricks in the south-east corner of B1 to get an idea of what lie below the drain and anything we should be careful of before rushing in. In this initial excavation two marbles were discovered. By the end of the day we had both A1 and B1 excavated down to sterile soil, photos taken and measured maps drawn up. We excavated a total of 4 artefacts. A very successful day in the TARDIS.
Thursday the 9th of September
Not much happened on this day, the sterile soil was removed and the top of the Maya Mesoamerican layer was revealed. No artefacts were discovered.
Slice of Life:
The majority of artefacts recovered have come from context 154 (followed by 153) which covers most of the square bar the drain path and the small charcoal path in the SE corner labeled context 152. Thus far we have over 50 artefacts made up of metal, glass, bone, ceramic and organic material and have not yet analysed them! What we think may be some bluestone abuts the drain and could possibly be steps leading over the drain...we will know more as we do further excavation obviously. Another interesting artefact is appearing in the NW corner, it is unknown what this round-metal object is at this point but it looks cool :P. Other than that we have always had one member of the team as the lab monkey to keep the increasing number of artefacts organised and ready for analysis. Joy.
Sunday the 5th of September
The day began in square B1 where we removed the historical layer located to the north-east of the brick drain that ran through both A1 and B1 by bringing this level down to the base of the drain bricks we were able... to locate what we have concluded to be the cut of the drain. The cut included a sandy-orange fill in which we found a small ceramic piece that included a markers mark which can now be used to form an earliest po
ssible date for the drain. Both the north-east and the south-west sides of the drain were excavated down to sterile ground before any bricks were removed. No artefacts were found in these areas so we proceeded to excavate the brick drain (probably the best part of the day hehe). To begin with we removed eight bricks in the south-east corner of B1 to get an idea of what lie below the drain and anything we should be careful of before rushing in. In this initial excavation two marbles were discovered. By the end of the day we had both A1 and B1 excavated down to sterile soil, photos taken and measured maps drawn up. We excavated a total of 4 artefacts. A very successful day in the TARDIS.Thursday the 9th of September
Not much happened on this day, the sterile soil was removed and the top of the Maya Mesoamerican layer was revealed. No artefacts were discovered.
Slice of Life:
The majority of artefacts recovered have come from context 154 (followed by 153) which covers most of the square bar the drain path and the small charcoal path in the SE corner labeled context 152. Thus far we have over 50 artefacts made up of metal, glass, bone, ceramic and organic material and have not yet analysed them! What we think may be some bluestone abuts the drain and could possibly be steps leading over the drain...we will know more as we do further excavation obviously. Another interesting artefact is appearing in the NW corner, it is unknown what this round-metal object is at this point but it looks cool :P. Other than that we have always had one member of the team as the lab monkey to keep the increasing number of artefacts organised and ready for analysis. Joy.
Jedi Council:
Sunday 12 September consisted of removing the remainder of the sterile-scoria layer,
then a yellow layer that exposed a number of terracotta sherds and a flaked obsidian piece were embedded in the charcoal/black soil in A1.
This black/charcoal layer was left intact and showed at many points that it covered a plaster floor.
The decision was made to map and remove these artefacts in order to protect their fabric.
The terracotta sherds appear to be fragments of a single artefact that had been fragmented, although proper analysis will have to be done to confirm this.
Not to mention the salmon patties, salad, a variety of goats cheese and breads for lunch provided by AZ & DG was a rather refreshing change of pace.
The decision was made to map and remove these artefacts in order to protect their fabric.
The terracotta sherds appear to be fragments of a single artefact that had been fragmented, although proper analysis will have to be done to confirm this.
Not to mention the salmon patties, salad, a variety of goats cheese and breads for lunch provided by AZ & DG was a rather refreshing change of pace.
Super Seven and The Sifters... Week Two
Hey everyone.
I'm Matt and I'm here to share what Super Seven has been up to in squares C5 & B5 in the TARDIS.
While we've been largely absent from this blog so far, our quadrant brothers and sisters from The Sifters haven't been. Make sure you check out their latest entry, which is all fancy with moving pictures and sounds. While I'll be mentioning some of their activities in this blog, you'll have to make do with just words from me.
First up I'll tell you about our second week in the TARDIS
9/9/2010: Back in the TARDIS
We were back into the TARDIS on Thursday. Firstly we needed to re-do the levels after some discrepancies were discovered from the weekend.
We quickly jumped into our jobs, with Phil re-doing the levels before helping Sureyya excavate B5, Katherine was recording, Lynne sieving and Stephanie doing Munsell soil testing while I was back into the lab, dealing with our artifacts from Saturday. Because of this, most of the notes on Thursdays activities are from Phil and Lynne, for which I am grateful.
While the sun shone intermittently through the clouds on Thursday, the warm days earlier in the week had dried out B5. While this removed the muddiness of Saturday, it did harden the clay layer of Context 308 and dried out the gravelly soil of Context 309.
Phil excavated Context 309, exposing another possible context beneath. According to Phil's notes, Sureyya "cleaned the whole lot up" after he was reprimanded for "brushing and creating false levels", which Phil seems to love so to do.
Regardless of Phil's love for false level creating, Context 309 was removed, leaving Context 308 for Saturday's dig.
Lynne was sieving, and was able to find two nails in Context 309. One was clearly from the construction of the TARDIS, being very new, while the other nail was slightly shorter and encrusted in dirt and rust. More pieces of concrete were found, as was a small piece of glass.
Back in the lab, I was cleaning, drying, bagging, labeling and cataloguing our finds from Saturday, as well as doing the same to the new finds. Not much to report there.
The Sifters
As in the first week, The Sifters excavated in contexts.
On Thursday, The Sifters scraped away the last of Context 011. As they finished doing this, Context 014 was identified underneath it.
Context 014 was defined as being a hard clay surface which across the northern boundaries of A4, as well as into the centre
11/9/10: Second Saturday
After some brain storming, come 11am on Saturday, The Super Sevens were back in the TARDIS.
While not mentioned in the last blog, we had uncovered a marble. We decided to leave it in situ until Saturday, we could record it properly. We decided to continue excavating in another part of Context 308 before doing this.
First up the plate were Lynne and Stephanie, who were excavating Context 308 from opposite sides. Stephanie's vigour for digging saw her get through her half very quickly, uncovering a large fragment of dark green bottle glass in the process. However, Lynne was able to uncover another Context underneath the clay of 308.
Sureyya, Katherine and myself joined in the excavating after lunch, removing a large amount of soil, uncovering another nail. As the day continued, we finally recorded in situ the marble, nail and glass. We continued to sieve, but began using a larger gauge sieve as the finds dried up.
We finally removed all the remainder of the square, with Sureyya using a small pick to do so. Sureyya and David then did some stratigraphic layer recording. The day ended soon after.
The Sifters:
(Thanks again to Caroline for some notes on The Sifters activities)
Another context was identified along the western wall of A4 which was labelled as context 012 and contained a lighter, more sandy soil. As with the other contexts, Context 012 was excavated using a trowel. Despite sieving 100% of excavated material, very few artifacts were found. A marble and another small round unidentified object were also recovered from this context.
Along the southern boundary of A4 another context was identified. This context was labelled as context 013 and was identified as a sterile layer containing a thin lens of red soil which was used to separate the historical period from the Mesoamerican.
After clearing context 012, context 014 was excavated using a trowel and small handpick. 100% sieving resulted in very no artefacts but a great deal of cement and building debris. This context was identified as fill.
Finally at the end of the day, another context was identified as belonging to the post which stands in the corner of the south west boundary of squares A4 and A5. This context (015) will be excavated next Thursday and results recorded.
Thanks again to everyone in the Super Seven, and Caroline for her notes.
Super Seven and The Sifters... Week One
Hey everyone.
I'm Matt and I'm here to share what Super Seven has been up to in squares C5 & B5 in the TARDIS.
While we've been largely absent from this blog so far, our quadrant brothers and sisters from The Sifters haven't been. Make sure you check out their latest entry, which is all fancy with moving pictures and sounds. While I'll be mentioning some of their activities in this blog, you'll have to make do with just words from me.
First up I'll tell you about our first week in the TARDIS
2/9/10: Our first meeting
The first meeting of the Super Seven and squares B5 & C5 was fleeting but enjoyable. Extremely fleeting in the case of C5, as we had decided in our research plan to only excavate B5.
Katherine, Lynne and myself dove into the squares, cleaning away a year of neglect to make them look very smart and clean, with B5 emerging smooth, pale and weed-free.
4/9/10: the First Saturday
Super Seven's first weekend in the TARDIS was wet and windy, making our squares a muddy mess of clay and gravel just days after our attempts to tidy them up.
After we performed some cosmetic surgery, or clean up as everyone else called it, on the squares, soaking up all the mud with a sponge and squaring it up, the excavation began, with Sureyya the first to take the reins.
While the clean up was being done, Phil was busy takes levels, certainly his speciality within the Super Sevens group. It became obvious during the day that my specialty was providing sugar filled treats such as snakes and sultanas, and Stephanie's was eating them (despite her protests that she shouldn't have anymore).
Due to the conditions and the understandable apprehension of a new dig, excavation was slow to begin with, but soon there were full buckets from the clean up. This level was named Context 307, and despite careful sieveing we only found a few small pieces of concrete.
We had originally attempted to simply shake sieve the spoil, but very quickly, Stephanie, Katherine and myself finally deciding upon using a water bottle in a makeshift wet sieving system. This worked significantly better, as well as being significantly messier, which made it even more fun.
Back in B5, we had moved through the top context 307, and had discovered two new contexts: the northern, gravelly context 309 and the southern, clay ridden context 308. While we only removed a small amount of 308 (still finding three concrete fragments) we began to remove context 309 on Saturday, finding some charcoal, wooden fragments and more fragments of concrete.
Super Sevens strategy of sieving everything we took out of B5 saw us find 10 small fragments of concrete, the largest which was 7 grams, as well as some charcoal and wooden fragments. We were unsure at the time if this was diagnostically relevant.
The Sifters
Over in A5 & A4, The Sifters had also decided to concentrate on one square (A4).
Using a trowel, The Sifters spent there opening week mostly focused on the surface scatters of slate and glass in Context 011 found along the northern and north eastern boundaries of A4. Also found was a nail and two unidentified round metal objects. Just like Super Sevens, they decided to sieve all spoil. The Sifters recorded the artifacts they recovered in their log book and also in photos.
This rounds up Week One in the TARDIS for The Sifters and Super Seven. I'd like to thank Lynne, Phil, Stephanie, Katherine and Sureyya from Super Seven for helping in Super Seven's notes, and thank Caroline for her notes on The Sifters activities.
Hope you enjoyed it and I'll be posting Week Two soon!
Monday, September 13, 2010
A hearthy weekend rolling stones...
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| Fireplace and flagstones in hearth |
While Los Increibles had a large brick fireplace and hearth to dig around, The Rolling Stones were confronted by apparently bare squares and thus dug cautiously in standardized depths. Both groups sought extra information regarding the historical building, seeking material that would enable dating or enable us to better understand the lives of its former occupants.
The Rolling Stones found various elements of a door knob and lock, as well as window material located a metre away from the doorway and walls. Los Increibles found that the flagstones in the hearth had been placed in a different soil to that of the rest of the square, perhaps a sand to assist laying a flat floor. Two tiny beads were also found which while apparently innocuous, were red and blue glass, colours which required the use of expensive materials such as gold and cobalt in the manufacture. Such beads, albeit in small quantities, may suggest a moderately wealthy household, as well a female presence, while the item identified by The Rolling Stones as a possible marble implies occupation by children. The Rolling Stones explored the floor of the hut, discovering that a very compacted sand area lay over clay. Even given the disturbing lack of facial hair present - the true mark of an archaeologist - excellent progress was made over the first two days of excavation.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
September 4-5 SE Quadrant Update
It was a busy first weekend in the TARDIS for the SEQuadrant with all groups working hard to excavate and record their layers. Here are the results so far:
Superposition:
After initial work to clean and take levels in their squares, Superposition began excavating in C2 and D2. Wooden logs which were part of the historical layers were removed from both squares allowing work on area below. Superposition have made their way through the historical layers in both squares finding three artefacts in C2 (2 glass and 1 metal). They have reached the sterile layer, and are heading into the Mesoamerican layer but as yet no finds have been unearthed. However a noticeable mound is in the layer which extends from C2 into C1. Superposition have changed strategy from digging in spits to digging in contexts, due to sterile layer coming through so quickly. Excavation will continue into the new layers.
Mudd:
Mudd is excavating squares C3 and D3 and will be concentrating on C3 while D3 will remain untouched from last year. The top layer of C3 was removed as it was assumed to be wash from other areas of the site since last year but soon it was discovered to be the beginning of the Mesoamerican when a scatter of obsidian lithics was found directly above some red stones. These finds changed the strategy immediately and stratigraphic digging began along a North-South section of the square. The eastern side of the section was excavated and more red flat rocks began to appear but the extent of them still remains to be excavated.
Sifters/Super Seven Update
Hey guys here is a verbal update of what we have done in our sector alongside some photographs as we have excavated. This is the Sifters and Super Sevens quadrant. Mostly Sifters information but our counterparts in the Super Sevens will be posting some further information soon.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
quote of the day
"When you're taking levels, is it backside or backsight?"
It very much depends where you're looking Lynne!
It very much depends where you're looking Lynne!
A prod into the dark
Having a sense of what you're about to encounter is invaluable in archaeology. One way of exploring the depths of a site, before you sink a trowel into it, is through remote sensing. Aerial photographs can reveal crop marks, indicating the presence of ditches and buried structures. Other non-destructive, geophysical survey techniques, such as resistivity, magnetometry and ground penetrating radar, provide another way of testing what is beneath the surface.
David Hunter of Hunter Geophysics kindly offered to do a resistivity survey of the TARDIS. Braving another damp morning, we laid out 1m wide strips and surveyed the site.
The remains of the Historical Australia phase architecture, and emerging structures, limited the amount of readings we could take, but it will be interesting to see how the wide range of resistivity readings, particularly in the north of the site, compare with what we uncover in the coming days.
David Hunter of Hunter Geophysics kindly offered to do a resistivity survey of the TARDIS. Braving another damp morning, we laid out 1m wide strips and surveyed the site.
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| David and Morgan probe the depths of the TARDIS |
Scrape scrape
Archaeologists rely on several senses to differentiate between deposits when digging - colour variations, texture , and even the sound of the trowel...
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Weekend 1, before and after
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| Start of play, on a soggy Saturday |
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| End of play, after a (mainly) sunny Sunday |
Why blog a dig?
Nearly fifty years ago, Sir Mortimer Wheeler wrote: “For those few who are concerned with the cultural setting of the broken mud buildings of Mundigak, there must be many hundreds who prefer such stuff as dreams are made on, particularly when dreamed in an exotic setting described with factual and convincing zest.”
The popularity of Time Team and other archaeology spin-offs, and excavation volunteer programs, demonstrate the general public's on-going appetite for 'living the archaeological dream'. Without that interest, we'd find it much harder to find funding and justify our profession's existence. Dig blogs are merely another way in which to engage with the public in the digital age... without them having to get muddy and wet.
The popularity of Time Team and other archaeology spin-offs, and excavation volunteer programs, demonstrate the general public's on-going appetite for 'living the archaeological dream'. Without that interest, we'd find it much harder to find funding and justify our profession's existence. Dig blogs are merely another way in which to engage with the public in the digital age... without them having to get muddy and wet.
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| The Sifters and Super Sevens brave the elements |
Thursday, September 2, 2010
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