Ali’s using the broadband connection! Curses. So here I am, blogging into Word. There’s something not quite right about that.

I thought I ought to write about my placement today, before I forget. I figured that I could blog about it in great detail and then I’d be able to use the weblog to remember what I did! Because I think I have to do a presentation and a report on it. Or something. And I’ll forget if I leave it.

The placement went better than I thought it would. I can’t help but wonder whether he’ll turn up tomorrow, look at the work I’ve done so far and wonder why on earth he let me loose on his computer. Ah well.

It only took about 45 minutes to walk to the Jewry Wall Museum. I suppose that’s just over 2 miles, something like that. I arrived twenty minutes early, not that I could amaze anyone with my eagerness. They didn’t open the doors until 10am. :)

I’m working with the city’s “Sites and Monuments Record”, commonly known as the SMR. There’s only one person overseeing the city’s archaeology, so he’s quite busy. The idea is that I can do some of the stuff he doesn’t have time to do. It’s supposed to give me an insight into Professional Archaeology. And if today was anything to go by, I’m definitely going to learn things!

First of all, he explained how the SMR works. It’s basically an Access database linked up to something called MapInfo, so you can map the entries’ locations. But it’s not a simple Access database. It’s a nightmarish web of “events”, “sources” and “monuments”, which all have to be linked together. And there are certain ways every field has to be filled in, otherwise it won’t work properly. (Hence the dread that I’ve made some awful mistakes!)

After the explanation it was time to do some accessioning. I had three reports to accession in one day. It doesn’t sound like a lot, does it? But it’s slightly more complicated than you might think. The reports were all about one site in Evington. Someone wanted to build five new houses on a plot of land, which may or may not have archaeology lurking beneath the surface.

The site was a really clear illustration of how commercial archaeology works in the UK. You see, if it looks like a site will contain archaeology, a developer has to have a Desk-based Assessment written. If the DBA’s research makes it look likely that there’s archaeology present, then it might progress to an Archaeological Evaluation. And after that, they might decide to put a Watching Brief in place. These are the three sorts of jobs that are commonly undertaken by commercial archaeology units.

So, because of where the site was, a Desk-based Assessment had to be commissioned. I’ve talked about those before, remember? I did one for a project. Well, I had to read the DBA and work out what the important points were. I had to work out a summary, and fill out records for the “event” of research and the “source” that is the publication.

When the DBA was completed it looked like there might be medieval remains on the site. It was pretty much in the centre of Evington’s historic medieval core, plus there was a moated manor house nearby, and an ancient church. So it was decided that an Archaeological Evaluation had to be carried out.

The Archaeological Evaluation is the next step on from the DBA. Three trial trenches were dug on the site, covering 3.9% (I think) of the area. One of the trenches didn’t uncover anything. One had a pretty boring linear feature in it. The last one contained three parallel gullies that contained late Saxon/early Medieval pottery. It looked like they were probably property boundary ditches. They also had some residual Roman pottery in them (residual means it was ended up in the fill of the ditch at a later point, not during Roman times), so there was probably some Roman activity nearby.

Since the Evaluation turned up a few new “Monuments” that could be recorded (the western linear feature and the eastern gullies), they had to be added to the database and linked to the “Event” and “Source” entries.

Having done an Evaluation that didn’t turn much up, but did turn something up, it was decided that an archaeologist should be around when house one’s foundation trenches were dug. This is a called a Watching Brief. The archaeologist stands around and peers into holes, trying to see if there’s anything interesting in them.

The Watching Brief for this site was fairly pointless. They found another gully (or possibly a pit) near the other gullies, but it wasn’t easy to see what it was. Not only that but it was made even harder to record in the SMR because it wasn’t well recorded. The Brief had a lovely plan showing the section’s location relative to the house, but sadly the section didn’t seem to be marked on it.

And that was the end of the site. There are five lovely new houses in Evington, and I’m left wondering what those mysterious ditches really were...

Well, I’m not that bothered. But the reports were an interesting read.

Archaeology’s like a huge puzzle. :D

posted by Fiery Fred @ 11:08 PM