SEDGEFORD HISTORICAL  AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Weblog Week 2 (15th July to 20th July 2007)

by John Boothroyd & Gareth Davies

Chalkpit Field North

Despite the adverse weather conditions especially in the second half of the week, we have still made good progress on the Chalkpit evaluations and have had some outstanding features and finds.

Trench 1 was brought to near completion with the last few stages of recording being undertaken. However one last surprise was in store… As the excavators removed the last of the fill from the ditch excavated in week 1, a near complete smashed Saxon pot was uncovered. This fantastic find was fully recorded and will be lifted with great anticipation next week.  

Excavations progress in Trench 1

Discovery of smashed pot in Trench 1 ditch fill.

This week investigations also began on Trench 2, where geophysics suggested a number of interesting ditches were present. Initial cleaning revealed a Saxon loom weight and to our delight a Neolithic hand axe. Towards the end of the week a number of north south ditch features of potential Saxon date were exposed. Intriguingly, the only east west ditch feature contained surface finds of Roman pottery! This feature will be fully investigated next week…   

Saxon Loom weight found on Trench 2

Neolithic Hand Axe found on Trench 2

Meanwhile in Trench 3 the ditch feature that may represent one of the main settlement boundaries continues to be excavated. This week, excavations did not produce the vast amounts of late Saxon pottery, bone and oyster shell found last week, (although the discarded remains of animals were evident in lower ditch fills). However, it now appears that we have a number of quite deep intercutting ditches running on the same alignment. Some of the earlier fills of these ditches have produced only middle Saxon Ipswich ware pottery. This reinforces the notion that we are looking at one of the initial and most important boundaries of the Saxon settlement that was perhaps maintained for up to 200 years.

Excavation continues in Trench 3 revealing deep Saxon ditches

Discarded pig skull revealed at base of ditch in Trench 3

New Trench

Despite the continued water logging work continued apace on New Trench. We are now starting to remove the final Saxon layers to reveal a more sterile ‘abandonment’ layer, which we think seals Iron Age and Roman archaeology.

As cleaning progressed on New Trench an intriguing band of stones was revealed that may indicate the edge of a deep terrace, or even a revetment underlying all but the earliest of Saxon occupation on the Boneyard site. A slot excavated through this feature showed that underneath these stones lay natural gravels, which marks the conclusion of the archaeological sequence in New Trench.

A Saxon pit was excavated this week and may be one of the final Saxon features to be investigated on New Trench. This feature produced large quantities of middle Saxon Ipswich Ware, lava quern and, interestingly, a sherd of early Stamford ware; a regional import.

Week 2 also saw the end of our school visits, with over 250 children coming  to site across 8 days. A great time was had by all, they spent their days enjoying a wide range of activitys provided for them. The popularity and success of these trips is reflected by the number of bookings already being taken for next year, which we hope will be as good as this.

With a fair wind next week may see the removal of the final Saxon layers on New Trench…

New Trench excavations at the start of week 2

Removal of final dark brown Saxon layer

Stone terrace or revetment located at the east of NT

Stamfordware from one of the last Saxon pits to be excavated from NT