Dig Day Sunday 20th June 2010

A fine picture of the team this morning. Will giving us the site update since last week.

The gardens are starting to look lovely with the new summer flowers starting to go in.

What a beautiful day. Blue sky and warm sun. Makes a change from the previous 2 weeks.

The other half of the horse's skull was found in the 2nd quarter of the pit in the knot garden. Heather was given the task of drawing the section of the pit...with all those bricks!!!!!

Due to a misunderstood word, myself and David (who volunteered!) were tasked with standing outside the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in order to advertise the sieving that's started in the now-closed public garden. We were provided with 2 hand sieves and 3 environmental buckets of much sieved soil and no decent finds. Believe me, it was very hard to be enthusiastic with a couple of grubby bits of brick, a bit of flint and lots of stones. A potentially good idea but not thought out. We were rescued after 2 hours.

In the public garde, 2 marquees had been set up for the sieving of the spoil heaps.





Inside each tent are 2 large supported sieving frames and a number of individual sieving frames. The idea is to get the public involved which was no hard thing. Ten display boards have been produced on easels which depict the act of Will Shakespeare throwing away and old inkwell into a well, the subsequent years and what happened to the well, the archaeological excavation which finds the inkwell and what happens behind scenes (conservation, analysis and final display). Myself and Colin arranged them in a line from the steps to the marquees so that the public would be drawn into the tents as they read them.


View from marquees to Guild Chapel



Large, supported sieving frame.


Individual sieving box.


Children and adults alike took their turn, trying to find that elusive bit of William Shakespeare. And low and behold, one little girl found a thimble. Second star find of the day. The previous one being the finding of a small bone dice in context 1010 at the front of the house, by a volunteer on his first day who had never dug before. Where's the justice in that. Well done to Adrian for that because we would never have picked it up in the sieving as the holes are huge.

Barrows later, Will finally shut up shop and along came the cream scones and biscuits. Yummy. This was soon followed by a stroll back to the car via the ice-cream barge!

A nasty reminder to Sue of what she's missing. Come back soon!