First day of our closed dig in hidden fold of the Hidden Valley. Well second day really – yesterday we de-turfed trench one (T1) and it was a case of many hands make light work.
Anyway back to today. We spent the whole day removing the top and sub soil – basically this meant the top 200 mm or so. We are now on the top of our first context which is probably only a century or so old. That said the finds from today spanned about 8000 years. The newest things were Victorian, the oldest Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age), and in between a tiny fragment that is probably from a nearby Tudor building.
Trench 1 – clearing the sub soil
Find of the day was a suprise. We found quite a bit of worked chert, used for making stone tools in prehistory, but that is not unexpected in the Hidden Valley. What we haven’t found before is what most people see as the staple for prehistoric toolmakers – flint. Today that changed when Catherine found our Find Of The Day. It’s a tiny Late Mesolithic/Early Neolithic microlith with a burin (a sort of gouge) knapped onto it. The burin is the pointy bit.
Day 1 – Find Of The Day – Mesolithic flint microlith
Beast Of The Day at the top of the page is the odd tiny Eriosomatinae or Woolly Aphid to it’s chums. Strange little thing isn’t it? Is minute is Word Of The Day?
Please note that even if the weather is misbehaving we will still be working at the dig site. Our wonderful facilities mean we can start cleaning the finds and assessing the site based on what we have found.
Alex Whitlock