DR MARK CLINTON'S NOTES

Photo No.1

This photo shows a stone cobbled surface. This surface forms part of a post-medieval building complex. which is built over the medieval ditch which enclosed the site. There are in fact two phases of post-Medieval building in this area, one from around the 1700’s and the other from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. IT is though there used to be an orchard in this area, and possibly the earlier building phase is somehow related with that.

Photo No. 2               

A large part of the work we do on site consists of excavating medieval ditches, of which there are a large no all over the site. This photo shows members of Asa Carlson’s team in the process of excavating one of these ditches, which have to be excavated stratigraphically as each layer was laid down to get an accurate chronological idea of the process by which they were filled and to accurately date the finds within.

Photo No. 3                

Here we have a picture of Stephen Devlin excavating a pit.  The normal process involved here, with a small feature such as this, would be to firstly clearly define the edges of the feature. This is done by noting the difference in soil colour and texture. Once the edges are established, a Context and Feature number are allocated. The pit itself is known as the Feature. The fill of the pit is known as the Context. In this photo we see Stephen removing the fill. As he removes it, the archaeologist fills in a recording sheet describing the material removed. Once the entire fill is removed, a Feature sheet describing the cut is also filled out. Then the Feature is given a post-ex photo and plan.

Photo No. 4                    

This photo shows Deirdre Kavanagh excavating part of a wall, which forms part of a possible late medieval mill complex. This area contains a number of short walls courses as well as a possible footbridge and several stone lined watercourses.

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