Bailey grapples with sampling sediment
At last we grasped the final day of excavation. It was a day of blood, sweat, swearing and tears with the clashing of trowels and the flinging of dirt…
In the morning we trudged to the site with the knowledge of the impending de-turfing facing us. We began to take off the top layer of a section joining two trenches only to be told “Make it bigger!” *sigh* Being brilliant students we diligently de-turfed the selected area. Once we had got down to the next layer and made it sparkling clean we were told “Dig it deeper!”
Dig!
The digging and scraping of trowels continued until after lunch. Then all hell broke loose as the clock struck 3pm. Bailey was summoned to assist in the removal of a muffler cut in half (to be used MacGyver style as a core sample) that was hammered into the drain feature. Meanwhile the team had gathered to furiously scrape and sweep the last centimetres of soil from the drain area. All students had Simon watching and waiting until the job was done. Josh saved the day with his bionic arm making it bigger and digging it deeper before the final time was up. The final day of excavation ended with Simon standing on top of the van with a camera in his hand and a lesson to be had. When you make it bigger and dig deeper you will get a picture worth a thousand buckets of dirt to be sieved.
After the day was done we all had the evening off from tedious paper work and sorting of the daily finds to watch movies and eat junk food like typical uni students.
– Katherine and Bailey