Slept pretty badly. Ground not very springy beneath my thin bed roll. Every couple of hours my body would complain and I’d roll over, which woke me up. Eventually rose at 7 properly and had my first can of coffee. What a genius idea. Mr Nescafe, I love you! Then my specially prepared (by me) oats for breakfast (oats mixed with powdered milk, bit of water, stir till boiled – perfect) and a proper coffee.
The day is gloriously all sun. The finds supervisor (Laura) says it’s going to pour with rain tomorrow. What a little ray of sunshine she is. Teeth cleaning and face washing completed in the toilets, as the shower block (I say block but it’s actually two small showers in the office – one for men, one for women) is locked until 8am. Slapped on plenty of sunscreen and deodorant and ready for the day. I think I’ll have a little lie down.
It’s now 6.30 and I’m exhausted. We started off (there’s 11 of us trainees) in the Education Centre with David Rudkin. He’s the Site Director and the Director of Fishbourne. We all had to introduce ourselves. We are all as varied as you can get! There’s a 17 years old and a guy who looks about 65 then everything in between. All with varying degrees of knowledge and no-one having been on a dig before. So we’re all starting from nothing. There’s an Australian (Pam) from Perth in our group and also a couple of Australian’s who are volunteers (Caroline and Emmie who I met yesterday).
I should explain the distinction. Volunteers are people with experience who sign on for the dig whereas trainees are all novices. After this week (and after joining the Sussex Archaeological Society) I will be eligible to volunteer next year.
Anyway, back to the day. David showed us some finds so we could get a bit tactile from the off. Last week’s trainees complained they hadn’t been able to touch things at the beginning so we benefited from it. Then we were whizzed around the museum and finally to the café for our “…only free cup of coffee“. We all met Ivy, the café lady, as well. At last we made it to the site.
Here John Manley took over instruction. He is Co-Director of the site with David. He sat us down and read us the rules ‘on-site’. All pretty sensible really and about what you’d expect on a building site. Then he showed us round. The volunteers were all busy scratching round in the trenches. We then traipsed round to the small finds building to meet Laura who is the Small Finds Supervisor. She is in the tent next to me with Ollie, her partner.
Laura showed us lots of bits and pieces, some lovely Samian ware and brooches from last week. She also showed us the unwashed stuff! Sam & Rachel, who were sitting near me, started wondering how we were going to tell the difference between the unwashed stuff and rocks. It’s true, there seems to be very little difference.
After this it was time for lunch. Had a delicious bacon bap then went and bought a dig t-shirt and John Manley’s book, AD 43, the Roman Invasion of Britain, A Reassessment. Must get him to sign it.
Back on site, David Maynard taught us how to use the mattock, shovel, wheelbarrow and our trowels properly. And then FINALLY we were put into groups to start digging. At first I was put up with the metal detectorists, clearing the rubble for them.
David on site
This is probably a good point to explain what happens. We gradually mattock a section (usually) 10cm deep by 5 metres square (the context), trawling regularly through with our fingers and trowels then shovelling it into a wheelbarrow. This is then trawled through again before it is taken up to be metal detected, then discarded. After the entire section has been cleared, it is all trowelled off smooth.
Finds are divided into bulk and small (and probably earth shattering but this was not mentioned). The bulk being bits of tile and brick, most pottery, animal bones, shells, etc. They are put in plastic containers with the relevant context number on them. Small finds have their position marked on the ground which is then recorded 3 dimensionally using a machine that looks like a surveyor’s tripod and stick.
Shovelling rubble was not a lot of fun but eventually I got onto the site and it was excellent. Mattock here, shovel there. We found a very big bit of tile and a few bits of pottery but nothing of any great import. A yellow discolouration of the soil, however, had everyone buzzing about what it was. So we started following it back to see how far it went.
All too quickly it was 5.30 and time to pack up the tools, move them into the shed and head back to camp. Had a much needed and, I think, well earned shower then a coffee before dinner. After food and a nice long relax on the grass outside the tents, we all headed over to the pub. There were only the campers and two of the trainees who are staying in B&Bs locally. I talked to Laura and Ollie about cats, dogs and computer games. Ollie is an engineer who knows as much about Grand Theft Auto as I do so there was lots of scope to compare notes. He’s got a mate who has completed it without resorting to cheats! Pretty impressive. Got back to the tents at about 11 and crashed.
