Midway through the season
The second week of Berkeley is drawing to a close and we
have accomplished a lot in a short period of time!
Our sections are nice and clean and thanks to all the hard
work of our undergrads they are ready for photography. Site Supervisor Emily and her crew were
hard at work this morning taking photos of all of the ditches so we can finish
the recording of these features. Our students are continuing to empty the slot
that was discovered at the back of the trench last week and our new pit is
being cleaned ready for recording.
In more exciting news, we have made a couple of discoveries!
In our Tudor tavern corner of the trench we have discovered a lead powder cap and
a musket ball. A powder cap is a nifty device that would have served two
purposes. Firstly, it would have capped a vessel containing gunpowder and
secondly it would have been a way of measuring the perfect amount of gunpowder required
for one shot.
Left: musket ball, Right: lead gunpowder cap
One of our Site Supervisor, Emily, has a theory about which
period these items belong. The layer above where these artefacts were found was
a tavern that had been destroyed during the civil war. The rubble was spread out around and pieces of debris fell in between the cobbles in the
layer underneath, which is
cobbled. Our finds were discovered sandwiched between these two layers, which
Emily thinks means that these artefacts were highly likely to have derived from
the civil war.
The location of our amazing finds
Drawings of the features of the trench have continued today, and our more artistically inclined students have been tasked with this job. Check out this photo that amazing Anna drew today!
Anna's drawing
In other news, we had a visit from departmental family and friends. Teachers of archaeology and anthropology alike have
come to visit the post-ex and excavation sites.
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