Week 5 – Reports, stratigraphy and growing cress!
At the beginning of week I had the chance to start work on the second season of evaluation on the Exploring Tinsley Manor project. In addition to the report, I started work on washing, sorting and counting the finds. It was interesting to see the variety of finds recovered - glass, pottery, metal and leather - as most of the sites I have previously worked on have tended to produce finds of one material type. On Thursday I went to Tinsley Junior School to help Sally teach stratigraphy to the children. We helped them build ‘trenches’ in plastic trays using stones, sand, compost and clay to demonstrate how crop marks are formed using cress. It was nice to see that their enthusiasm for archaeology hadn’t dimmed now that the trenches have been backfilled.
At the beginning of week I had the chance to start work on the second season of evaluation on the Exploring Tinsley Manor project. In addition to the report, I started work on washing, sorting and counting the finds. It was interesting to see the variety of finds recovered - glass, pottery, metal and leather - as most of the sites I have previously worked on have tended to produce finds of one material type. On Thursday I went to Tinsley Junior School to help Sally teach stratigraphy to the children. We helped them build ‘trenches’ in plastic trays using stones, sand, compost and clay to demonstrate how crop marks are formed using cress. It was nice to see that their enthusiasm for archaeology hadn’t dimmed now that the trenches have been backfilled.
Week 6 – Become an archaeologist, see the world!
Week 6 of my internship has been a great learning experience. I’ve reached the half-way point of my internship and it has flown by! I worked on my first ‘away’ project with Wessex, which led me to Worcestershire. The site was an evaluation, like the one that I worked on in week one. Being away for four days was a good opportunity to really focus on the archaeology and rural Worcestershire was a beautiful place to work, especially in the sunshine. The sandy soil was a real challenge to work with but my supervisor seemed pleased with my progress. My recording skills have developed a lot since we had last worked together in week one in Derbyshire. To round off the week I have been working on the Tinsley report back in the office although next week I should be back on site, this time in Nottinghamshire.
By Hannah Holbrook