Friday 29 July 2011; Day of Archaeology

On site: Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews, Caoihmín Ó Caoileáin, Chris Hobbs, David Sims, Siân O’Neill, Nick Smith, Tony Driscoll, William Peters, Sophia Brookes, Elizabeth Brookes, Pauline Gimson, Sid Rowe, David Croft, Ursula Scott, Ann Pegrum

Weather: overcast, dry; much cooler than yesterday!

The inner ditch of the henge seen in section; it has been cut secondarily into the inside of the bank

Today we ought to begin the archaeological investigation proper. William is planning Trench IV, starting at the south. Sophia, Elizabeth, Pauline, David, Nick and Siân are finishing the cleaning of Trench I, after which it can be planned. Tony is taking Ursula, David and Ann through basic context recording procedures. Caoimhín and Chris are doing the traverse from the Church Field temporary bench mark across to the site. I’m trying to remember to tweet about the Day of Archaeology; our first post went up just before lunch.

I can now be confident that the material inside the outer chalk deposit is later: it’s the fill of the inner ditch that shows on the geophysics. This would have been impossible to cut secondarily into a mound and can only have been done if the outer ring of chalk is the remains of a primary bank. So we really do have a formative henge and I can stop fretting!

Caoimhín did some video recording over the lunch break. He’s going to edit them and I’ll post them at a future date. My second post for Day of Archaeology has now gone live.

Planning and recording is proceeding well. So far, I’m very happy with our progress.

I’ve not blogged much today because I’ve been concentrating on the Day of Archaeology and trying to remember to tweet.

Filed under: Fieldwork