After several days of excavation, I can confidently say that I am enjoying myself!
Starting out my first day of excavations, we opened a 1×1 metre test pit across a section of the stone alignments, in the garden zone. After being told several times, to not be so precious with my use of the trowel and to just get stuck in and whack out the top soil, I found that my afternoon went quite quickly as we were soon at the bottom of the test pit. Moving on to a new test pit on Day 2 revealed new layers and levels within the gardening zone, and a different use within the same gardening area.
After finishing the excavations in the garden area, I have moved onto stratigraphy drawings. Drawing the stratigraphy is an important part in cataloguing the archaeological record where we transfer the visible layers of the test pit to a scale version on paper. I am enjoying the drawing, even after finding out at 5 minutes until the end of the day on site, that my third drawing was not quite to scale…just a slight learning curve. But, it is very important to note that the use of consistent scale is key!
Through rain and shine we have worked on this beautiful island. Uncovering lots of new layers and levels in the garden zone and filled out so many forms…which we hope the students on registry can interpret!
My new clothes no longer look new. They are covered in mud and I think they are set to stay this way. I am not phased anymore at the prospect of getting stuck in and getting covered in mud- in fact, I think I quite like it J
– Krystle