ATU Diaries

Work has continued despite the dull murky weather. We have now managed to get half the site down to the natural clay with only two ancient features revealed  (A small pit and a post hole). The layers over the natural clay continue to produce large amounts of pr-historic flint work, the earliest of which is of Mesolithic middle stone age date  (8’000-4000BC)  Amongst the implement of this period, recovered, is the cutting end of a chipped adze. Some of the

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We are now well past day 100 of the excavation but significant discoveries continue.  We have now taken about half the site down to the top of the natural clay. In the layers immediately above this we have recovered lots of pre-historic worked flints and early pottery, some of which could be Neolithic. At a higher level we are still looking at the remains of late Iron Age chalk floored buildings, several of which were provided with hearths and ovens

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We have reached the end of extra time and there is still plenty to dig.  Over the last few days the weather has turned to hot and sunny conditions and the general view of the Management seems to be, keep your head down and keep digging. This we have been doing and another two Late Iron Age ditches have been revealed.  This brings the total number to seven, all running in different directions. The earlier ones are a littler bit

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As we approach the end of our September extension there is still a lot left to do and the Management is hoping that we can somehow continue work into October, although money is going to be extremely tight.  In the excavations things are really starting to hot up.  Two more late Iron Age ditches have been discovered .  One of these has produced some really good material including imported pottery in the form of Terra Rubra, Terra Nigra and White

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We are now half way through our period of extra time but there is still masses left to do.  The weather has been a bit mixed with gale force winds and low flying buckets but we have had a couple of really nice sunny days (with a good spitfire display yesterday). On site, work on the big diagonal ditch is now almost complete.  It is now looking as if the ditch itself was dug in the very early Roman period

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This post is in: Site Updates

Having reached the last day of August and the intended finish date of the dig, we are still here with masses to do. The Management has calculated that we can afford to continue digging until the end of September.  Unfortunately the weather over this past week has been poor and the number of diggers turning up has consequently been reduced. Nevertheless there have been some highly significant discoveries made. We have now established that the early Roman ditch running along the

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This post is in: Site Updates