Today we had another busy day on Dunsapie, with many of the trenches finishing for the season and hosting our final Open Day. It was great to show the public the progress of our trenches, and share our season finds – over our two open days we’ve had over 100 people visit, not to mention the numerous visits throughout the day from locals and tourists exploring Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat.

Trench 3 – Becky

Today in trench 3 our aims were to record the trench since we had finished digging to the bedrock the previous day. Kai came in early to complete the photogrammetry before it became too sunny to take clear photos. Caitlin and I recorded our final trench tour to show the final product of our digging and finds. These vidoes have been great practice for our introduction to public archaeology. We finished up our section plan of the South wall from the cut we made in the trench to help us create a storyboard of the trench. I have greatly enjoyed the drawing of our trench as it has helped me understand the different context levels better. In the afternoon I helped out in the open day touring the public around different trenches, which also helped me practice my public archaeology skills. This was very fun to see how far the other trenches have been getting on and helped my understanding of the hillfort as a whole instead of just my trench.

Trench 5 – Emma

Yesterday we finished digging out our trench down to the bedrock, so today’s trench goal was to complete some recording. We did sections drawings of the sides of the trench. These drawings are useful because they not only act as a record of the trench, but they show the different soil contexts of the trench. These soil differences act almost as a timeline of the site, displaying how the site changed over time, from bedrock to clay to topsoil. It was really interesting learning how to create archaeological drawings, which included taking measurement points to create an accurate image. In the afternoon, we had an open day for visitors to come and view the trenches. We also got to share some of our finds (mostly animal bone from our trench). For the rest of the week, we’ll be working on backfilling our trench.

Trench 6 – Ryan G

Today we continued removing the last bulk of material from the bank and continued cleaning the trench to prepare it for photogrammetry and to have a clear view of the section in order to begin drawing before we begin backfilling. Today we also had an open day which helped me to deepen my skills in interacting with the public on archaeological sites.

It’s been a fantastic season and the students have made excellent progress in our trenches! Well done to the whole team!