Summary weeks 1-3

We have successfully completed the first few weeks of the survey and despite some awful weather at times everyone has worked very hard to make sure that we have as good a season as last year. With just one week remaining on this years survey we have already found over 220 features which range from the numerous pitsteads to the occasional hearth or the remains of a hut. The sun has even come out on a few days and we have seen the fields surrounding the woodlands fill up with lambs.


A total of 150 of the new features that we have recorded have been pitsteads like the one in the picture above, but they were by no means all the same. Some were on steeper banks than others, some had stone revetment walls built around them, some were cut into the bank deeper than our tallest volunteers and some were barely cut in at all (like the one above). We have found many with charcoal fragments and many with tracks leading from them. The variety and abundance of these pitsteads will allow us to look for patterns in style and size and will hopefully give us lots more information about the extent of historic woodland management in the Rusland Horizons Scheme Area. 


A few huts like this one have also been found in varying states of repair. Although they do not show up clearly on the photograph, this hut had clear earthen banks in a circular shape around the stone hearth, this is where the walls of the hut would have been.


Everyone has been working extremely hard to get these features recorded but when the sun came out a quick sunbathe was often necessary to warm everyone up!

We've got one week left (16th to 20thApril) to make sure that we have recorded as many features as possible and places are being booked up fast, if you would like to join for our final week of surveying please book a place at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/rusland-horizons-spring-woodland-archaeology-surveys-2018-registration-41456852562. We are hoping this post-Easter week will bring with is some warmer weather and hopefully the blue bells that we've been seeing the early signs of in our survey time so far. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Comments

Popular Posts