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Summer Excavation, Page 4

Day 1 – De-Turfing begins! – by Callum

Callum My name is Callum and I’m studying History and Archaeology at Southampton University. What I’m most looking forward to about Basing House is using techniques and technology’s that they didn’t have on the excavations in the 60′s. — First Day Morning We set off from Southampton at half past eight looking forward to our first look at the Basing house in the flesh. Continue reading →

The Archaeology of Archaeology

Thanks to all of the students and volunteers we are making amazing progress here at Basing House. Despite the best efforts of nettles and roots the turf has now been removed. It is fantastic to see the previous of the excavation be uncovered and to get a better sense of how the excavators worked on the site in the 1960s. Archaeological techniques have changed a lot in the intervening period and we hope to be able to add to the discoveries which were made then. Continue reading →

Day 1 – Deturfing and site tours

The first day on site is always a challenge. There is so much to set up and to get going. The weather was amazing. Hot, humid, close, and no clouds in sight. Despite this, we managed to put up the bell tent, take an extensive site tour, go through all of the risk assessment and health and safety information, introduce ourselves and even get down to some deturfing in the afternoon. Here are some piccies of our first day. After a morning of paperwork and introductions, we went on a site tour. Continue reading →

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: Clare Allen – The Defensive Role of Basing House and its Environs

Clare Allen Student Basingstoke Common Survey Project We’re very happy to share the details of another fantastic project that will be happening at the same time as our dig. Postgraduate student, Clare Allen, will be working at Basing House for the duration of the excavation, to investigate the surrounding landscape of the Civil War period of the site. Clare has written a guest blog post below about her plans. Continue reading →

Bring Your Bones! Bones Identification Day 8th August

Osteologists Visit Basing House Do you have a mystery bone that you dug up in the garden or found whilst walking the dog? Would you like to find out more about how archaeologists identify bones? We have fantastic news for you! Some lovely skulls to whet your appetite! Can you identify all of these chaps? Bones Identification Day at Basing House 8th August 11am-4pm Ellie Williams and her team will be visiting Basing House on the 8th August to show a selection of bones from the University of... Continue reading →