Today we had an exciting day at site, when we were joined by the crew from Digging For Britain! The students enjoyed talking to the crew and presenter Alice Roberts, and gained valuable insights into archaeology in the media!

Emily’s Experience

This morning, we picked up where many of us left off on Tuesday, with various tasks in each trench. After heavy rainfall over Tuesday night, Trench 1 began by cleaning their trench, and brushing the stones of the rampart to define its structure. Within Trench 2, we carried on trowelling back the layer of soil within a smaller section of the trench, ensuring that we created neat and defined section edges. We collected samples from each of the areas. Trench 4 tidied the stones of their rampart, removing any stones that had tumbled down and defining its edges. An area at the bottom left half of the trench was sectioned in order to focus on an area which is thought to be an antiquarian trench or an animal burrow. Trench 7 continued to define the stones that may be a wall of a house, trowelling through top soil, and photographing the progress. Part of a metal bracelet was found and recorded, although this is likely to be modern and found in the upper layers of the trench. Trench 8 investigated the stones at the top of the trench, which may have a relationship with a stone structure found in the middle, as well as a relationship with the structure in trench 7.  

In the cabin, students continued to sort previous days’ finds – this included ensuring records were correct, bags labelled, and artefacts stored correctly.  

Whilst we continued excavating, we were joined by the team from Digging for Britain, including the presenter Alice Roberts, as our project will appear in a segment of the show! They primarily focussed on trench 1 and 2, filming and chatting to the students as they worked, and our director Jon talked to Alice about some of our finds! It was really interesting to see the behind the scenes of the programme, and to gain an insight into this side of public engagement. We can’t wait to see our site on TV, and share it with more people!

Check out a reel with some of the behind the scenes from our day of filming with Digging For Britain!