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Excavation Plans, Page 2

Final Preparations

I’ve been doing some last minute preparations, ready for the first day of our dig tomorrow. We how have a Facebook page! We’ve been live for half an hour and already have 17 followers. Join the crowd! The page is here: https://www.facebook.com/BasingHouseCAT I’ve also made a ton of stickers. So that when you come to visit us, you can easily see who is a member of the project team. We’ll be wearing these: Gareth and his stickers. Continue reading →

Counting Shovels

This morning, Dan, Chris, Gareth and I packed up the vans and transported all of the kit that we are going to need for the next three weeks of excavating up to Basing House. The weather was gorgeous (continuing on this week’s theme) and we stopped at Barton’s Mill (a very nice pub just next-door to Basing House) for a quick soft drink with lots of ice before returning in convoy to Southampton. Packing the vans. Continue reading →

Guest Blog: Meg Davis – New Ways of Recording Excavations

Introducing Meg Meg Davies, one of our student researchers. We’re very excited that Meg will be visiting us on the 1st August to test out how handheld devices can contribute to archaeological investigations. We interviewed Meg to find out what she is planning. What will you be testing at Basing House? I am planning to test out touch-screen tablets for their uses within archaeological excavation field recording, such as photographing,  drawing, writing context sheets, GPS, etc. Continue reading →

Plotting the trench

This morning some of our team travelled up to Basing House to finalise plans with the staff at the site, and to look again at some of the things we’ll be working on while we’re digging later this month. First of all though, we couldn’t resist going to look at the recently discovered Tudor fireplace, found by the building contractors whilst they have been working hard to fix brickwork issues on the standing remains. Continue reading →

Our 1960s excavation

The excavation this Summer, we’re reinvestigating excavations carried out by Aldermaston Archaeological Society 1962-3 at Basing House. Reported in the Proceedings of the Hampshire Field Club (Pike & Combley, 1964: 11-20), the excavations consisted of a long trench (c.1m x 30m) which ran from the bank and ditch at the back of the earthworks of the main house at a right angle, towards the Basingstoke Common. Continue reading →