Week 6
It's nearing the end of week 6…..It has rained nearly all day today, and more is expected over the weekend….just when we are trying to get everything packed away dry! But we beat the rain on trench and managed to protect and cover the whole trench prior to the rain starting.
There have been two course running this week. The archaeometallurgy group have made some beautiful objects.
Our lecture this week was given by our archaeometallurgy specialist, Dr Ellie Blakelock, and provided some fascinating additional information on the Staffordshire Hoard. This is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork yet found, consisting of over 3,500 items, of gold, silver and some 3,500 pieces of garnet cloisonné jewellery.
Those on the Non-invasive and Landscape Archaeology course, have been busy learning about the local landscape, and using magnetometry and resistivity to try and establish whether the settlement of Sedgeford at any time extended into Park Field (to the east of the woodland next to Boneyard). Final results are still awaited.
On the social side, Jess and Bryan provided the quiz of the week, which had some very amusing questions on incidences at SHARP in the last 6 weeks. The winners were the team from Trench 23.
It has been a busy season, but one of the best weather-wise for a number of years. The progress on the trench this year has been phenomenal, thanks to all the harmonious and dedicated work undertaken by volunteers, BERTS, and supervisors. The feedback from all the courses has been very positive, and we are all very much looking forward to the commencement of season 24 which starts on Sunday 30th June 2019.
