We visited the dig at “Maids Moreton Mound” on a warm and
sunny morning, Monday 17 August, the first day of the second and final week of
the dig. The first thing we learned was
- it isn’t a mound, it’s a platform! Tim
Upton-Smith kindly gave us an overview of the findings so far, explaining that
they had uncovered a (6 metre?) square of yard stone and had chosen to dig 4
sondages at strategic points, guided by the geo-physical scan previously conducted.
8 or 9 volunteers were hard at work in those sondages with
various sizes of trowel, meticulously clearing the soil away. In one corner, Barbara (bottom right in picture) was excavating a
previously identified deep pit - she was already over a metre down and there
was clear evidence that the pit was lined with stone but the purpose of the pit
remained unclear. In another corner (top centre of picture),
Lynn, Rhian and Glynis had uncovered a large flat stone and some pink soil,
which was an indication of (???)
 |
| The round bowl (ignore the green mat) |
In one
of the other sondages we were fascinated to see them slowly and tentatively
unearthing a round bowl which was buried just below the yard stone level and
contained clear evidence that it had been used to burn something, as yet
unidentified.
A few meters away someone else was meticulously sieving the
soil which had already been removed.
This dig is the second of two (so far) at this site. Sadly, we had just missed an exhibition at
Buckingham Old Gaol Museum, where all the findings in the two trenches dug on
the earlier dig last year had been displayed.
We were told that all those findings had been mediaeval and that the
yard stone had been laid down immediately on top, so was also of around that
era.
We felt privileged to have witnessed the work at close hand
and are very grateful for the warm welcome we received.
Linda Knights and Bronwen Lee
No comments:
Post a Comment