Activities of a volunteer archaeologist

During this week of Festival of Archaeology, I will let you know some of the varied activities which I undertook during an excavation in 2019. You may be involved in any or all of these in a "Day in Archaeology" during your project.

Day 1 - a day for setting out the trenches. Using the maps as evidence and fixed points, the two initial trenches were laid out. The turf was carefully removed and stored for reinstatement at the end of the dig.

Day 2 - using mattocks and trowels, the team removed the first context of demolition material. Within this context there were numerous pieces of pottery, china, nails etc. but of special interest to this project was a 17th C clay tobacco pipe bowl. This would have dated to the time of the English Civil War when Worcester was under siege.

Day 3 - washing finds and following the process for future archive. An excellent way to learn how to determine the different periods of the finds.

Day 4 - recording the trenches by use of photographs and drawing to scale. Use of conventional symbols help make the material important for future archive retrieval.

Day 5 - all over for another year but plenty of work to do to protect structures of interest before reinstatement of the site. After backfilling and returfing, one final piece of site measurement and recording to enable future work at the location.