Day 7
Wednesday 1st September 2004

“Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” Sam Newton

Twenty five people were working on site today, which was clear and hot. Excavation continued in Trench A and both Tom Loader, the archaeologist who had initially worked on the project, and Sam Newton from BBC Time Team, paid extensive visits to the site. Sam wandered about, getting the feel of the landscape , although he was always tempted to see it from a Saxon viewpoint. Tom meanwhile cleaned Trench B singlehanded, looking for features.

Core Sampling

Mike Godwin is the environmental archaeologist who came in today to train us in his skills. He wants to confirm or refute the proposition that the site was originally an island. He decided to drill a series of holes (trans-secs) from west to east along the possible shore line to the south of the dig. The first hole is called BPA1. He will follow these up with a set of holes from the possible shore up to the area being excavated. Here you see him explaining the use of an auger. As Chris, Pippa and Nigel found out, this was amazingly hard work, but as they withdrew excellent samples and almost certainly found the old line of the river, it was worthwhile. Samples were bagged and labelled.

They found the chalk bedrock at 1.15 metres in one place. In another, having gone through topsoil, sand, clay rich deposits, clay and peat, they eventually stopped at 2 metres 23.

Mike will now take the samples home to the lab, where they will soak overnight in hydrogen peroxide. He will then pass them through a 125 micrometer mesh. He will study the residue, looking for forams, which grow in brackish water. Mike will train another team of novice core samplers tomorrow.

Trench A


Jezz is very happy with the progress of the dig. Today’s finds confirmed it as a multi-period site, with Saxon and Neolithic finds as well as Roman. He is interested by the amount of burnt daub turning up. This could be one of four things: part of a building covered with paint or lime; the lining of an oven; bricotage from salt workings; industrial, linked to the slag finds.

Find Cleaning

Today Shelagh Rylands began find cleaning using fresh water and a toothbrush. The daub is a little fragile so we are waiting for Jude Plouviez, a Roman finds specialist, who is coming on Friday.