the Culver Archaeological Project blog

Blog update

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:35:53 +0100

Hi everyone, the excavations are carrying on at a fast pace and the weather has been good to us, although we had heavy rain on Wednesday 02/09/09. This was very good for the site, it made towelling and mattocking a lot easier. Excavations in Pond Field have been going well. The large burnt area (context 21) a layer cover pits and postholes, has been cleaned back a large quantity of finds have been recovered. The large pit (Context 30) is actually not a pit (it was only part excavated in 2007; the majority of the feature ran under the bulk). It is actually a large linear ditch, which runs through the site. There are also three or four gulley’s that run from under the bulk into separate pits, although they only showed up after the rain we had on the 2/9. These will probably be left unexcavated and will be opened up in 2011. We have put two slots across the possible prehistoric ditches, and kept 100% sample for flotation, unfortunately no datable evidence has been recovered. We have also excavated the possible Bronze Age cremations; once again, 100% sample has been taken for floatation. We have put another slot through the eastern ditch. Several pieces of pot and CBM have been recovered, as well as two large pieces of iron slag, which were deposited at the very bottom of the ditch. We have also continued to excavate the pits that where half sectioned in 2007. In Court House Field, Sarah20Foster and Nick Carter continued planning the road, which Sarah Welsh had started. It was decided that the road would not be fully planned stone for stone (forty metres of road equals a lot of flint!). It was decided that edges would be recorded and at ten metres, a two-metre slot would be recorded to give a representative sample. The road will be fully photographed using a quad-tripod, and pasted together in Photoshop, also an aerial photo using a telescopic will be taken. We have spent most of this week cleaning the road for the photographs, which will be taken this coming Sunday by Lisa Fisher. We are still unable to identify the reason for the S-bend in the road. Furthermore, we have found another crossroads, which appears to head towards where the anomaly is/was, which, we presumed was the reason for the S-bend, on the opposite side of the road the crossroad heads off west out of the trench. We have excavated a slot across the possible eastern flanking ditch, and we found another possible ditch (several pieces of East Sussex ware pot was recovered). We have also found a gulley, which runs into a possible pit; once again, no datable finds have been recovered. Once the road has been cleaned, we will continue excavating the features in both Court House and Pond Field, watch this space for the last week of excavations next week, hopefully it will be an eventful week.

2009 THE STORY SO FAR

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 12:07:09 +0100

CULVER ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROJECT BLOG. 2009 Sorry for the delay in writing this blog up, it has been a hectic couple of weeks, although moreover a very productive couple of weeks. We started machining on Friday 7th August around lunchtime, prior to that the morning was spent with Sarah Foster David Millum, and oneself armed with 100-metre tapes and ranging poles. We attempted to relocate our 2008 geophysical grid, I might add in a field of dead sweetcorn plants (they had already be harvested), yet they still stood taller than we did. Our aim for the excavations in Court House Field was to locate the S-bend in the Roman road, and attempt to discover why and what they had diverted around. The aim of the excavations in Pond Field was to reopen part of the 2007 excavations to full excavate the features that disappeared under the bulks and the remaining Bronze Age cremations that where left in situ. Our third site was to be ‘The Crink’, which is the route of the Greensand Way, unfortunately due to the wet weather in July, the combining of the oats has been delayed and the crop is still in the field (When they finally get the crop out, I might still put an evaluation trench up there just to get an idea of what is to come). The machining in Court House field went very well; we went straight down on to the road surface. We opened up an area approximately 50 metres X 30 metres. The machining took a day and half to open up Court House field. During that time, David and Sarah had gone over to Pond Filed and sprayed out the area to be stripped back. This area was opened up on the Monday tenth of August Our students and volunteers started to clean back the road surface, this was very hard work and over the following week and half, they moved tonnes of earth off the road. Furthermore, the results were amazing. The S-bend, of the road, has been located, and in a good state of preservation. We also have had several finds, three iron objects (awaiting x-ray) and a Roman coin in need of conservation and identification, although it is probably a sestertius. In Pond Field, the state of preservation of the road is poor to say the least; this appears to be much closer the surface than it is in Court House Field. The strip back was finished in one day. On Tuesday, Clive Meaton turned up to help with the supervision and to do some planning. We dropped our students and volunteers into Court House field, with to start cleaning the road back to expose the width and some of the metalling surviving at the edges of the road. We left Sarah supervising the road, David, Clive and I went over to Pond field and we climbed up to the top of the spoil heaps. The two flanking ditches of the road showed up very clearly, we spray-painted the rough edges in (on clay sites they=2 0dry very quickly and become a uniform light greyish/brown and virtually impossible to see unless they have been left open to weather for some considerable time). We also sprayed up any possible features that were showing. For the next few days, we left Pond Field to weather out, David and Clive set out the grid so Clive could start his Pre Ex plan. The rest of the team headed over to Court House Field to carry on cleaning the road. In addition, this year for the first time, we had the West Kent Metal Detecting Club attend site, they marked possible finds on the site and lifted topsoil finds in the surrounding area. This proved to be a very successful venture; we have at last count 14 coins, 11 being Roman. Unfortunately, most are in a poor state and will need some conservation work, but most will be identifiable. Any other metal finds where also recovered including lead weights, a c1700’s pistol shot, buckles, and hobnails. At the start of week two we where still cleaning back the road and had started also cleaning back the Pond Field site. The more we uncover and clean up the road, the more impressive it looks. The students and volunteers finally cleaned back the 40 metres of road we had exposed. Furthermore, from the top of the spoil heap, the road in its full glory can be seen, the S-bend, probably the first time it had seen the light of day for nearly seventeen hundred years (I must say a very well done to all those whose spent back breaking days cleaning, the results is well worth it). In Pond Field we started re-excavating four pits that where only half sectioned in 2007, These will be excavated fully now, one of the most interesting pit is the possible puddling pit in the N-W side of the trench, this has a small gulley running from it into the roadside ditch. We have had some complete pot bases out of it; the bottom ¾ of the pit is full of gaunt clay. I believe it to be part of a possible pottery or tile manufacture process. On the North-East side of the trench, we have a large burnt area, which covers pits and possible postholes; this was also present in the 2007 excavations. It is a finds rich layer, containing Ceramic Building Material (CBM, which is roof tile, floor tiles, box flue tiles etc), pottery and areas of burnt clay. Our biggest enemy at present is the weather (and let us set the record straight I am not complaining about the hot weather). The site is very dry indeed which makes cleaning back and actually seeing features very hard work. Although with gratitude to the farmer Mark Stroude, he lent us 500-gallon water bowser and a water pump so we could fill the tanks and spray the site. We then needed to down grade the watering (the water pump was putting gallons per minute on it), so a friend of mine Robin Day came=2 0to the rescue with a generator and the fittings to convert the pipe down to half-inch garden hose. Although the tyre exploded, so we are waiting for a new tyre so we can continue watering the site. Furthermore, another of our volunteers John, kindly lent us a swimming pool water pump which give us more pressure for spraying the site (thanks John) Like Court House Field, Pond Field required cleaning so the features can be seen. Our small army of students and volunteers has expertly done this. In addition, yesterday our possible prehistoric features started appearing. Returning briefly to Court House Field Sarah and I decided that we should expose more along the edge of our road, to see if the road side ditches are visible lower down into the subsoil. Therefore, with kind permission from Mark Stroude, I took the farms JCB to the trench. All other personnel went to continue in Pond Field, with the exception of Sarah, who acted as banks man for me. We took off about 150-200mm and came across some more metalling, which at first we thought was plough drag or where they had been displaced when the road was in use. So we continued eastward, and there was a still trace of road surface, although we had to go another 100-150mm down. We also found a c1840’s field drain (which I need to repair, say no more!). This is possibly another road creating a cross roads (we need to check the western side of the road, before we can confirm this). Furthermore, we believe we have found the eastern ditch as well; today everyone is in the Court House Trench, cleaning back getting ready to put some slots through the ditch and cleaning our possible crossroads. Furthermore if you’re on Facebook check out photos etc on our group page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Culver-Project-Archaeology/118813744231?ref=ts

Culver Archaeological Project Blog 2009

Sat, 29 Aug 2009 10:06:01 +0100

many thanks

CAP 2008/2009 Seasons

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:55:10 +0100

CAP 2008/2009 Seasons

Countdown to 2008 season

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 20:59:17 +0100

Hi everyone well the 2008 season is very nearly upon us. The 13 tonne excavator and dumper have been booked and our thanks go to Sussex Past for the kind and generous grants for this equipment.

Thanks to a very kind and generous grant from the CBA i am in the process of buying new excavation equipment, mattocks, wheelborrows, spades, shovels, hoes, buckets, etc etc. I have with kind permission from Mark Stroude received a shiping container and have sited it on the farm. With help (i think it was help) from Rosie Cummings we went shopping at Wickes in Brighton to buy wood, plasterboard, and lagging for the shipping container, this will be racked out and become our tool store and finds hut.

So all things going well come the 9th August we shall hit the ground running, for all of you who have not signed up yet please log on to www.culverproject.com and sign up.

The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone who is involved and those who are interested in the site up to date, so many arechaeologist turn up to sites dig for a week or two go home and never know what happened after they left, this blog shows that we do appreciate your help and it aims to keep you informed after you leave, anyway hopefully see you all soon, whatch this space it be updated every day once the dig starts.

One last massive thankyou is to Mal Woolliams who created the culver project website and this blog, if you wants to contact him about furture websites please ask and i’ll put you in touch

Rob Wallace

CAP Director

Dig Diary 2008

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:02:00 +0100

This blog will provide a running commentary on the dig this year:

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The Culver Archaeological Project

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:48:17 +0100

Dig Diary 2008 started.

This year excavations are taking place between Saturday 9th August and Saturday 13th September 2008.

You can apply to dig at www.culverproject.com now!