The sun is shining, the weather is sweet again….

The sun is shining, the weather is sweet again….and we are full throttle and taking advantage of this glorious sunshine until the next set of storms attack!

So what’s happened in the last 2 days?

Well Trench U is having all the excitement currently, with some fabulous finds from their trench and equally exciting structures coming to light.

Structures wise they are working on what seems to be the external ends of a house, with a possible medieval mortar layer on one side of the wall which may present a medieval courtyard.

Outside of this potential house there has been some fantastic finds including the beautiful little squirrel seal. Our 3D modelling team were quick to model this find in order in invert the seal to see what it represented. The results were great with a small squirrel sitting in the centre and surrounded by a Latin inscription which read I Crake Notis which in translation means I Crack Nuts, which made some of the team chuckle more than others (See below for photos).

The seal

The seal's underneath

Inverted seal 

At the west end of their trench they have also had some lovely glazed curved tile out next to what appears to be a base/beam slot for a window fitting. Their next task is to start taking down the material on the internal of the walls to see what contexts lay beneath!

Elsewhere in the field, Trench N are removing the clay floor layer which was found underneath the base of an altar which was removed last year and giving a full clean to the external quadrants.

Trench P are being driven nutty with an explosion of post holes in their trench, these are getting recorded currently along with the planning of the entire north half of the trench. They are also starting to take down the top contexts inside the brick walls to work out what phasing is occurring beneath, so stay tuned for more on that!

Trench W has now finished de-turfing their trench and are investigating an orange spread that was under the top soil. Finds from their trench so far consist of half a horse shoe and a musket ball. Claire has found a very efficient way to keep her helpers under control, thank you Jurassic World (see photo below).

Taming the helpers in Trench W

Trench W

Our finds team are having a lovely time in the sunshine processing our finds in their fancy finds palace.

Finds processing

Finally here is a nice image from the aerial photography that is taking place on site which shows Skinner’s second home (well the earth work remains of it). This photo is part of a larger project which involves 3D modelling the entire abbey and its precinct and geo-tagging the whole lot as well!

(Aerial shot of earthworks)

And with that I am off for jambalaya and camp quiz!

Half way there!

And we are half way there! 2 weeks down, 2 to go!

Though this new week has meant that we have had to say good bye to some of our old team (hopefully will see them again next season) we have also had 26 new members join our merry band!

Also sorry there has been no blog post for a few days, a few of us ‘nipped’ down to Dorchester (staggering 7 hour drive) for the weekend, but very much worth it, as we celebrated our first Thornton couple’s wedding! So congrats to Bre and Chez!

Anyway back to the archaeology….

So A few days filled with grey skies and rain hasn’t stopped our team from cracking on with their progress!

(Trench N)

In Trench N they have had a lovely few days continuing work on the NW, SW and middle sectors of the trench. Out of which they have had a variety of lovely finds ranging from some Norman/Saxon pottery sherds to a lead amupula. This ampula was found in two crushed halves and they would have been carried often around the neck of an individual potentially a pilgrim and filled with anointed liquids to be used when required (See picture below).

(Ampula from Trench N)

In other news in Trench N, they have also spent some time training up people on the total stations, or as they have now been nicknamed the turtle stations!

Over in Trench U, they have spent one day 3D modelling the 19thsC structure that they exposed (see the dense point cloud below) following this they then carefully removed the 19^th C structure.

(Dense cloud reconstruction of Structure in Trench U)

 (Removing structure in Trench U)

They have also recorded and removed the soakaway structure towards the middle north section of the trench, and after removing more rubble they have exposed the walls further of what is thought potentially to be Skinners House! (See photos below)

(Trench U)

In Trench P they have spent one day cleaning back the areas to see what contexts are lurking beneath, and then planning and leveling these contexts.

 (Trench P)

Then following this they finished excavating the cobble path and uncovered the pebble pathway in the NE corner of the trench. In the SE area of the trench there is also what appears to be a lead smelting area with related structural post holes.

(Cobbled pathway next to wall in Trench P)

(Lead smelting area in Trench P)

The surveying team have been released into the world with their brand new shiny Bartington and following their surveying success Trench W has now been opened up in the south field so stay tuned to find out more on that!

(New Bartington)

(Trench W being de-turfed)

And finally we have also been very busy with slowly 3D modelling the whole site, a mammoth task but one very worthwhile doing and producing some fantastic results, here is a sneaky glimpse into one of the 3D landscape models.

(Dense point cloud of the Abbey remains).

And  we survived week 1, and though we may have had to deal with scorching heat waves followed swiftly by huge thunder storms, we are still here and working hard! We gained a few more trainees over the weekend, some new faces and some old! Great to see returnees coming back for more, they must be gluttons for punishment J

So with the new week what news is there? Well In Trench N they have uncovered a lovely mortar step in the eastern end of the chapel. The stones have been robbed out from the step but you can still see the impressions in the mortar where they once would have sat. In front of the step you can also still see the impressions of floor tiles. These tile impressions seems to be at the same level as those tiles found in Trench P. Sadly, none of the tiles seem to be left, but a piece of marble has been uncovered which may have been a part of a larger group to create the step.

                                                      (marble fragment from Trench N)

                       

                                                               (steps from Trench N)

They have also finally got the last of the backfill out of the north and south ends of the trench and started cleaning back. This clean back revealed some more nice finds including a iron ox shoe.

                                                              (Ox shoe from trench N)

Over in Trench P there has been a lot of planning in this trench over the last 2 days, and then some levelling in the northeast corner and cleaning back. During the trowelling some lovely window glass has come out of these areas. In the west end of the trench the cobble path way also has now been cleaned (see below for photo).

(Cobbled path in Trench P and a piece of painted glass window from Trench P’s North East corner)

Over in the naughty corner (Trench U) they have now dug out the construction cuts next to where the structure was built (as spoken about previously) and they are beginning to take down the layer inside the structure to see if they can find the floor surface.

                                                              (Structure in Trench U)

Down at the eastern end of the trench there is a very large wall which has just started to be uncovered, this wall may link up with Trench L which was in this area a couple of years ago.

                                                                 (Wall in Trench U)

Finds wise a lovely copper band fragment has come out of the western end of Trench U that holds a lovely flower design on it.

                                                       (Copper floral band fragment)

So in all a fantastic start to the new week and continue for the rest of it. However presently a great week looks like it may be thwarted by rain and thunderstorms, lets hope this passes over us quickly!

2nd July: Many bottles of sun cream later the whole team is still smiling, and doing a great job on site. Though this is the 3rd day of the heat wave, nothing seems to stop the team from getting the job done…oops spoke to soon, as I am writing this the storms have just struck (however muggy madness earlier).

Today Trench P has cracked on with the removal of the last fills in the wall robbing ditch in the North East corner of their trench, as well as beginning to investigate a potential cobbled path to the west of the hospital building. There has also been some patient work finishing revealing the main wall.

Trench N however, not wanting Trench P to take all the glory has also cracked on very well with their planning and cleaning floor layers for photographs, before digging them out and going through the process all over again.

All hands to the deck in Trench U today exposing the structures, with some nice finds coming out including some post dissolution pottery.

Outside of the trenches the UAV took flight again this time to start the task of 3D modelling the landscape in and around the abbey. One field done...many more to go, but stay tuned for the 3D models!

And finally our first feature trailer of the site has now been uploaded on to our facebook page so go and check it out J

https://www.facebook.com/thornton.excavation?fref=ts

1st of July: So today’s challenge brought to us by nature, was the weather. Now normally we complain about the rain and the cold in the UK, but not today, not with the hottest day recorded in the last ten years happening right now!

This however seemed incredibly by the by and everyone on site trooped along happily with their work, and we had a rather productive day!

Lets start with trenches N and P, though they spent most of the day cleaning back, or removing robber fills from the archaeology they still produced some lovely finds in the form of painted window glass.

(Lovely piece of medieval painted window glass)

James and his crew in Trench U were busy uncovering the remains of a post medieval structure (see picture) and found a lead medieval air vent.

(Trench U)

Meanwhile outside of the trenches, Steve found some lovely items while field walking including one delightful decorated metal fixture. We also got some great UAV flying done in this beautiful weather and have some fantastic aerial shots of the Abbey and its surrounding precinct, along with some videos of everyone hard at work, stay tuned for cheesy promo video post!

(UAV photo of the Abbey)