Friday 18 October 2013

Our final day on site, but a busy day!  Ruth & Ann began by photo-cleaning the southern end of the trench, while Lynne & Peter continued where they left off yesterday – levelling off the central area and finding yet more bone suitable for dating.  Meanwhile Maggie was photo-cleaning the northern end.

We were joined mid morning by Chris Gaffney and 6 students from Bradford University, who having looked over the site, began to survey the area in the northern field, which had revealed some interesting features on the geo-phys. 

Lots of activity - cross-section planning, discussion & geo-physics (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

Apparently Chris has some new equipment, which he wanted to try out – the glimpses of their activities which we had from our trench all looked very intriguing!

Gently does it, Ruth! (c) photo by Lynne Primmer 

Vena and Vera arrived at noon, and were quickly persuaded to do some drawing, Roger having finished his photography. Vera and David recorded the profile of the west side of the trench, while Vena, and Alison plotted the cross wall. 

Measurements were taken by Ann, Lynne and Maggie – all done in rotation, while everyone took a short break for lunch.

Maggie demonstrates the relaxed art of cross-section plotting (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

This all having been done to Roger's satisfaction, we began the process of back-filling and re-turfing. Alison & Ruth volunteered to retrieve the pegs and return the stones used to build the cairns for these, to the edge of the two fields. Why did we use so many large stones for this........?

As the rain had started mid afternoon, and gradually became heavier, by the time we had finished, Alison commented that we all looked as if we had mud-wrestling!

Cold? Noooo-oooo....  (c) photo by Lynne Primmer  

Finally everything was packed away in the land-rover, Vera and Peter very nobly volunteered to help Roger unload at the other end so all that was left was the hole in the wall, waiting for the stone-waller.

So that is it for the field-work – reporting, etc, still to come. 

Many thanks to all the volunteers who have taken part in the surveying and the excavation with great good humour and in all sorts of weather. Also our grateful thanks to Roger for his guidance and tolerance in what I trust has been an enjoyable and rewarding experience for all.  

Ruth Spencer

Thursday  - 17 October

Our penultimate day and a very select gathering – only 3 of us and Roger. As it was a beautiful day  - warm and sunny, our first task was to dismantle the tent and lay it out on the field to dry – a much easier job than it was to erect it!

We then continued with further excavation – Peter & Lynne in the top of the bank and Ruth in the trench on the southern side of the wall. As it was the last day of digging and finds always appear on the last day, Roger had explicitly stated "No finds today!"  So Lynne & Peter thoroughly enjoyed themselves throughout the rest of the day finding large pieces of bone, suitable for dating. I don't think Roger was too upset, though!

Happy as a dog with a bone!  (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

Ruth meanwhile had to make do with cleaning down to the natural grit at the base of the trench, which proved very elusive. 

Archaeology with style and nonchalance  (c) photo by Lynne Primmer 

Roger later joined her to expose even more stones, but still very little grit.

Packing up  (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

The day finished with us sorting out equipment and packing it into the land rover – our last day tomorrow, so planning and back-filling to look forward to ............  

Ruth Spencer

Friday 11th October 2013 

 

Things are winding down now. 

 

This morning Ann, Ian, Lynne, Hugh, Alison, Maggie and Vera backfilled the two smaller trenches and replaced the turf.  

Meanwhile, Ruth and Peter continued digging at the southerly end of the main wall trench.  Here the base of the wall was gradually uncovered to reveal a very carefully laid underground section, very different to the jumble of stones that make up the mound under the wall at the other side.

 

The backfilling finished, Ian and Lynne moved over to help in the main trench whilst Alison instructed the rest of us in drawing an accurate section of the trench side, showing the different levels of the field surfaces, the base of the plough soil and the stony mound.  This proved harder than it looked. 

But the spirit level doesn't lie!  (c) photo by Ruth Spencer  

The base line that looked perfectly horizontal with a spirit level was proved by the Total Station to be MASSIVELY out (well, 10 centimetres).  But at last it was done.

 

Lively discussion with Jo and Michelle  (c)  photo by Ruth Spencer  

In the morning we welcomed Jo and Michelle, bone specialists from Bradford University, who carefully examined the pieces of bone that have been recovered.  They worked with us into the afternoon, observing the trench operations.  Thankfully they saw the funny side of long discussions, and some considerable confusion, about defining the various archaeological contexts. 

 

It was a COLD day.  The easterly winds blew over a number of small flocks of returning fieldfares, fresh from Scandinavia (well done Alison and Hugh for noticing).  The swallows, so numerous so recently, have all gone.  It was definitely autumn.

 

Vera Brearey

THURSDAY 10th October 2013 

Here is the daily report on the weather in Arncliffe - sorry wrong blog. 

Actually if the record of the archaeological activities has little value in the future the detailed account of the weather in this small area of the Dale has been well documented for posterity! Just for the record it was cold and sunny.

Alan prays for good weather!    (c) photo by Lynne Primmer  

Roll call for today: Ruth,Peter,Lynne,Hugh, Ann and Alan. 

The work continued under the cover of the tent continuing on from yesterday. Peter and Hugh working downwards at the top of the northern slope, Ruth and Lynne at the southern slope, and poor Anne exiled to the one of the outside tent and was heard to be muttering about having wished she'd put her thermals on!

Peter (why is it always Peter?) then uncovered a collection of large pieces of animal bone in a SECURE CONTEXT (hurrah) and Roger looked decidedly happy. Considerable time was taken on recovering and carefully wrapping this in foil as it should be ideal for dating.

Secure context   (c) photo by Ruth Spencer  

We had three visitors during the course of the day, two of which came when we were photo cleaning and were astonished at the sight of people cleaning stones with paint brushes and tea spoons.

Trench photo-cleaned and ready for its close-up   (c)  photo by Lynne Primmer  

Photographs of the trenches duly taken, backfilling commenced

Alan Williams.

Wednesday 9 October

For once the weather forecast was correct – heavy blustery showers with intermittent  sunshine and a cold wind!

Never downhearted ! (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

There were only four of us today, so we were all able to shelter under the tent. It did get a bit tricky at times as one tried to find a comfortable spot for one's knees, along with trying to negotiate trowelled areas, finds trays, stone buckets, soil buckets and feet getting mixed up with the tent frame!

All alone in a little trench (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

However we didn't complain as Roger was digging all alone in the extension trench in the rain and wind and no tent........

We removed the top stones from the wall trench exposing the underlying soil and the original wall revetment, but sadly no finds, other than the usual bits of bone & teeth, pipe stems, pot and a few nails. Maggie did find what would appear to be the metal plate for a child's clog though.

Exploring various lines of enquiry  (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

As has been said before "We are still exploring various lines of enquiry........"

Ruth Spencer

UWHG

Tuesday 8th October

Eight of us arrived on site just in time for the Arncliffe micro-climate to set in with its usual damp welcome. Nothing deters a hopeful archaeologist, however, and we all set to work eagerly anticipating exciting finds. 

Eager anticipation spurs them on (c) photo by Pauline Dodsworth

New girl Maggie was happy to work outside the shelter of the tent and so was immediately accepted by the old hands. 

The back-breaking task of planning  (c) photo by Pauline Dodsworth 

Vera and Ann opted to carry out the detailed planning of the main trench through the wall, in preparation for tomorrow’s removal of the all the stones which had previously been carefully cleaned and photographed.

A rather large molehill.....  (c) photo by Lynne Primmer 

Meanwhile, the spoil heap grew larger and larger... Peter and Alan continued clearing the lower reaches of the trench on the north side of the wall whilst  Pauline and Ruth worked at the gravel layer on the outer trench.  Their trench was becoming deeper and deeper and we feared that one of them would eventually disappear headfirst into it. (An interesting find for archaeologists of the future.)

Lynne’s trench was extended by a square meter to one side. She and Maggie soon overcame the logistics of marking out a square meter and quickly worked down to the level of the adjacent trenches: is there a feature there??

Digging continues despite the changeable weather (c) photo by Lynne Primmer 

By late morning the sun had reappeared and re-confirmed why we do archaeology in the beautiful Dales landscape.

Roger again tolerated with his usual good humour the numerous questions about stones which looked like artefacts or bone, the point of (not) keeping bits of charcoal and so on. But we carry on regardless. Who knows what conclusions will be drawn from this when the dig eventually comes to an end?

A moment of reflection - but no answers yet  (c) photo by Lynne Primmer 

 “The investigation is in its early days and we are currently exploring various lines of enquiry.” (RM c.2013, 2012, 2011 etc., etc....)

Anon.

Monday 7 October

A wet start to the day - and it wasn't supposed to rain! They say Arncliffe has its own micro-climate and it would appear to be true.

However, as Jane said on a previous occasion - "were we deterred?"  No of course not - we simply moved the tent along and kept on digging! 

And when it was coffee time, we just sat in our deck chairs in the pouring rain – strange people these folk who dabble in archaeology!!

Coffee in the rain (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

However under the tent, Alison and Ruth finished cleaning the south side of the wall trench, while Vena and Peter continued to clean the north end. Lynne, Ann, Pauline and Mark continued to work in the other two trenches, while Roger assisted, supervised or offered advice as needed. Oh yes, and he did plot in some of the finds from Saturday in between.

Digging in the rain (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

We were delighted to welcome Mark, who has never dug before, but proved to be very handy with the mattock later in the day!

At lunch-time Roger awarded the prize for the best trowelled trench to Peter and Vena and said that their trench was an example to us all.

The perfect trench (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

When all the trenches were cleaned to Roger's satisfaction, he photographed them from his usual position on top of the ladder.

The rain had stopped at lunch-time and the sun made intermittent appearances throughout the afternoon. This probably encouraged the appearance of three visitors from the village during the afternoon, who expressed interest in what we were doing. 

Diggers in the sunshine (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

There were no finds of any significance today, more bits of bone and a few pieces of pot, but there is always tomorrow..........

Ruth Spencer

Saturday 5^th October

A good turn out today – was it the promise of fine weather or the fact that we had finished de-turfing?

However it was good to see everybody and to welcome two newcomers, Eileen and Pam (sadly without Teddy). We were soon set to work; Alan and Ruth to finish de-turfing the lowest trench and Alison and Pauline to make a start on recording the wall profile, soon to be assisted by Pam. 

Wall profiling is such fun!  (c) photo by Ruth Spencer

Meanwhile the job of removing the top soil on both sides of the bank in order to expose the stones in the wall trench was begun by Hugh and Peter, soon joined by Alan and Ruth. Lynne and Roger began to excavate the lower two trenches, Lynne being joined by Pam when she could no longer assist with the wall profile.

The sun came out so Alan was 'banished' to climb the hillside on the other side of the river, in order to photograph the site from above. Unfortunately the sun did not stay out very long, but I understand he still managed to get some good photos of the fields. We watched his progress up the hillside during our coffee break, and then forgot about him until lunch time, when we were quite certain we could see him fairly near the top of the hill. We were all waving furiously, when to our surprise he walked into the field!

Look! Where? Is that Alan?   (c) photo by Ruth Spencer 

The afternoon progressed as in the morning, with finds of lots of bits of animal bone and teeth and the odd piece of willow pattern pottery. We were visited by two passing cyclists, one of whom had previously called in when we were surveying, and had come to see progress and also by Rich. followed by Sarah from the farm, who also showed great interest in our doings.

Working hard on our "Doings"  (c) photo by Ruth Spencer  

A day off tomorrow, to rest these aching knees and to catch up with the washing! Back to it on Monday............

Ruth Spencer UWHG

Friday 4^th October 2013  

Another grey, misty day with the hills snuggled into the clouds. Yet surprisingly muggy. Five of us today.

As we demolished (very carefully!) a little bit more of the wall  to enable us to work safely  in the trench, we found ourselves stripping off some of our outer layers despite the mizzly air. Caggys came off and went back on again throughout the day.

Plumb bobs at the ready! (c) photo by Jane Lunnon

We laid down the grid to mark out the edges of the trench. Not as easy as laying down the grid for the geophysics – this time we had larger margins of error for our right angles because of the small size of the area being measured, and we had to deal with significant slopes which brought in additional margins of error. Did Pythagoras have to deal with this problem? I don’t think so! We also had to move the tent to give us room to lay down all the straight lines .  Which meant we would no longer be digging under shelter! Still, it gave us somewhere to stand when the rain came down – that wasn’t in the weather forecast this morning!

We received a “state visit” from our colleagues Jill and Helen – and were able to provide them with suitable entertainment as we set about our tasks.  We also received a visit from a local resident and her wonderful dog, Ted, who is the size of a small bear!

Ted  (c) photo by Jane Lunnon 

We had a leisurely lunch, discussing various topics of interest, including the impact of the closure of the majority of academic adult education courses across the country upon community archaeology.

We enjoyed further interesting discussions when James arrived and we had to shelter from the rain in the tent -  he’s on a work placement with the National Park Authority, with a brief to encourage active youth participation in archaeology in the Dales.  It’ll be interesting to see if he can get some young volunteers to join us in our fieldwork over the next year or so.

 

James joins us in the tent during the rain  (c) photo by Jane Lunnon

In the afternoon James joined in with the deturfing. We found this quite arduous on the embankment as stones are of course very near the surface.

James carries on deturfing while Roger valiantly protects Bob from marauding sheep!
(c) photo by Jane Lunnon 

Despite the rain setting in again we managed to finish the deturfing by the end of the afternoon, ready for proper digging to start tomorrow.

Jane Lunnon. 

Thursday 3rd October 2013

Yesterday’s start to our excavation at Arncliffe was cancelled due to the weather but after a slow journey to the site, either due to a gas tanker (in my case) or five cows which ambled down the lane towards our target fields, we were today able to start the next stage of this project in warm, dry but not very bright conditions – note there wasn’t even one midge bite all day!

Roger told us what his priorities were and delegated us accordingly.  Alison and I, despite me not having ever put up a tent in my entire life, were instructed to erect the toilet tent – obviously a high priority task!  Both of us hope it is still standing tomorrow morning…

Latrine duty   (c) photo by Jane Lunnon

We then joined the rest of the workers where the previous excavation (2000) had been done.  Roger explained that we not to re-excavate the same area but would be putting in a trench just to the river side of it.  He hopes to establish whether there are likely to be any more deposits in this area – either human or animal.  He pointed out where the field wall had previously been either repaired or re-erected and told us he wanted to take it down to reveal about 2 metres of the previously undisturbed ground surface… but that was after we had put together the big top tent which needed to be placed either side of the wall!

Ruth, Pauline & Alison 's Iwo Jima re-enactment  (c) photo by Jane Lunnon    

After my vast experience (with the toilet tent, of course) I expected this to be very quick as there would be 6 of us involved – it wasn’t as easy as that!   All the metre length poles had to be fitted together, and boy were they a tight fit!  First of all we did one half of the skeleton structure, then we had to pass it over the wall (nearly 3m high from the field surface at that point of the mound) – and without scratching Roger’s magnificent white paint!  Then we repeated the assembly for ‘our’ side of the wall.  When we had got the two halves joined together it seemed comparatively simple to put the canvas cover over the frame, but I must stress it was thanks to Roger’s splendid acrobatic manoeuvres up a step-ladder to get it straight!

Putting up the canvas  (c)  photo by Jane Lunnon  

After the lunch break Roger explained how we should take down the designated section of walling to enable the dry-stone waller, after the excavation, to put it all back together as easily as possible.  Additionally we needed to be very, very careful not to remove any stones to destabilise the wall and had not to lift anything too heavy or send any stones cascading down on to someone else’s toes! 

Many hands make light work  (c) photo by Jane Lunnon

After we began to remove the filling at ‘our’ side of the wall, it did begin to became a little unstable so two strong men (Alan and Peter) were sent to Coventry – no I mean the other side of the wall – so it could equally be lowered at either side!  First aiders were not needed and, just as the weather deteriorated, we finished our task for the day – we had got down to the undisturbed ground level at the top of the mound.

Ready for tomorrow's digging  (c)  photo by Jane Lunnon 

They say we learn something new every day and this was my first (very enjoyable) experience of demolishing a wall - oh and erecting tents! 

Pauline Dodsworth