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Project background
Archaeo-botany
Excavation
Update
Air Photography & Geophysical Survey
Fieldwalking
Finding the earliest inhabitants of Boston Spa
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Update
Location: Leeds
Update (since the LHI Grant award)
The dig was resumed in June 2003, revealing further morphological elements of what we have come to believe is a type of sheepwash: an entrance cut through the limestone breccia; a pebbled surface around the central mound; a revetment supporting the mound slope and a possible shepherd’s platform on the edge of the ditch. However, the find of another rubbing stone in the revetment, plus last year’s saddle-quern, and the 50cms of up-cast from the ditch sitting on top of the pebbled surface, all suggest that we may have a much earlier feature from which the sheepwash had been adapted. The dig will be re-opened in spring 2004 for further excavation and soil sampling from the deeper ditch layers.
Putting everything together, we think the feature matches quite closely descriptions of sheepwashes used by the medieval Cistercian sheep industry in the Cotswolds, into which sheep were thrown at the deep end and allowed to scramble out up the ramp, the clay slurry removing the natural lanolin from their fleece. The site has the same coincidence of smectite clay deposits and shallow soils over limestone. Furthermore, Wray Wood was named in charters for the monks of Kirkstall Abbey, who were interested in the grazing value of the adjoining land.
Open Days
After articles and announcements in the local press, several school and community groups visited in the last week of June and were given a guided tour of the site and the dig. Visitors were shown examples of finds and told about the contribution made by archaeo-botanical surveys to the dating of features on the site such as old hedgerows, coppiced trees and ancient-woodland indicator plants. Theories about the dig and progress to date were explained.
Video
In spring 2003 we completed a 35-minute film about the first three years of the group’s work, entitled ‘Community Archaeology - The Past Beneath Our Feet’, which is available on video at £5 and CD-Rom at £3, plus £1 postage. It covers the development of a local archaeology group and the work completed. (For further information contact the group on 01937 844115.)
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