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Student Reporter, Page 2

Day 18 – Finishing the digging season at Basing House 2013 – by Jamie, Sophie and Sam

Sophie, Jamie and Sam have written a review of the excavation season. This is a taster of the archaeology from the previous three weeks. We had lots of great finds coming out, including four Roman coins, which we will write a post about over the next few days. In the meantime, here is Sophie, Jamie and Sam’s review of our dig. Continue reading →

Day 17 – A View from the Trench Edge – by Sophie, Jamie and Sam

On the penultimate day of the excavation Sophie took a few minutes out with a number of members of the excavation team to ask them about their views on the project and if it had met the aims set out at the start. Dave (Co-Director) “The dig has been very successful, in that we have not only uncovered the original 60’s excavation, but have been able to add information to the existing record. Continue reading →

Day 16 – 1960s vs 2013 – by Dom

The difference between what was found in the 1960s excavation and 2013 excavation A true British citizen may open with an assertion about the weather, and staying true to this, I can declare that we started the day with a cool, if some-what summery breeze, with the sun getting progressively hotter throughout the morning. A quick overview of the site divulged to me information which I processed as a sign that we were slowly but surely nearing the end of our time here at Basing House. Continue reading →

Day 14 – Box Grid Excavations – by Eden

Student reporter, Eden’s blog post on what it has been like to work on a 1960′s box grid excavation with lots of sections within baulks, rather than a more modern plan excavation where the horizontal plane is significatn for interpretation. — A box grid excavation involves digging a series of square trenches which are separated by preserved vertical sections called baulks. The technique was originally developed by Sir Mortimer Wheeler and refined by Kathleen Kenyon. Continue reading →

Day 13 – Amateur and Professional Archaeology – by Corrine

One of our students, Corrine, has written an excellent blog post all about the relationship between professional and amateur archaeologists. Professional and Amateur Archaeologists In increasing regularity archaeological excavations consist of a mix of archaeologists and volunteers. In our site volunteers make up a vital part of the team, the benefits of volunteers may seem rather straight forward, people working for you for nothing and they want to be here so they can’t complain (as much). Continue reading →

Day 7 – Ice Cream, Rain & RTI! – by Vicky

Second Week Begins! So the first week of the Basing House dig has gone, and after a well-deserved Sunday break, the second week begins. Despite spells of rain, it did not dampen the team’s efforts with the trench dig and progress was made. This was seen especially in the tough far corner, which finally after a few days of mattocking and shovelling, the group finally dug through layers of ground and had successfully de-turfed a large area. Morning trench shot. Continue reading →

Day 10 – The discovery of a Roman coin! – by Phoebe

The archaeology of the sections so far… The excavation has reached it’s tenth day here at Basing House, and as all the sections are hitting their respective base layers it is easy to see from looking at the section edges of the trench as well as the finds from each of the contexts we have removed, the changing archaeology of each soil layer and perhaps even their era of human activity… The site so far… 1. Continue reading →

Day 9 – Artists and Family Fun! – by Dan C.

Background information Today the team were continuing with the re-excavation of the work done in the 1960’s from the previous dig that took place at Basing House. The main idea of the day again was too track down the trench boundaries left behind, as well as to continue further on from where the previous excavation had finished in an attempt to find any new finds or information that had not been previously discovered at the site before. Continue reading →

Day 7 – Quick Photo Diary

One of our excellent student reporters will be writing up an article about today’s archaeology, so I just thought I’d share some photos from my mobile phone to give you an idea of how our day went. Early morning site tour Each team explained their archaeology from the day before We all updated one another on what we’d been up to Quick progress shot during coffee break, before the troops returned. It was actually warm enough today to all have an ice-cream. Continue reading →