Bloomery Blogger Report 2
I arrived a little late today and people were just finishing. At 2pm, showers had begun to fall and there was a certain tennis match to watch! Three 2m x 2m squares had been evenly spaced out on the slope running down to the stream. They had been arranged to cover the gaps between the trenches of the last two digs; in the hope something new may be found there. The one nearest the beck is called Trench 11. this is an area of slag. Trench 12 is in the middle roughly where the land gives way to the slag deposits. Trench 13 is at the top where there is compacted clay and stones.After stripping, all three were taken down to the first level just below the soil and subsoil. Various shards of pottery of various dates were found, including a small rim of what appeared to be medieval Pennine Gritty Ware (a lovely name!). Some fancied that a rounded speckly stone about the size of a cricket ball was artificial and possibly used for crushing ore. That's what I like about archaeology... lot's of opinion and very little hard fact!
People were excavating to the next level when the showers came and things got too wet to continue.
Lower picture taken just as the rain came down.
Trench 12 - remains of earlier dig on the right
Trench 13 - compacted clay over rounded stones
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