Friday 2 July 2010

The trench is OPEN!




Exciting times as we remove the backfill from the end of last season and reveal the geotextile laid down to protect the excavation from its long winter's nap. It was exciting to be standing once more just above the Roman street! Sunday morning, the students will arrive and the first tow days of the dig will largely involve cleaning back the textile and preparing the surface for continuing our investigations. Monday we will also open up our Northern trench where Oxford Archaeology's Dr Gill Hey hopes to excavate a remaining part of the Dorchester cursus.

The Continuing Education Department's survey week was a great success, with some interesting results in the Abbey churchyard hinting at a possible Hollow Way of uncertain date. A partial survey of the Dyke Hills was conducted, as well as a buildings survey on the Abbey Guesthouse. More results from today's final day of survey will be posted when they have been processed, in the next few days. All the students learned a lot, had a wonderful time under some incredibly blue skies and presented their findings to residents of the village last night in the Village Hall.

Beginning Sunday, there will be daily updates on this blog, bringing you pictures of finds, details of the day's work and snippets of Dorchester's history to help the pieces all fit into context. We appreciate any feedback, so if there is something about the dig you'd like to know, ask us in the comments section and we will post answers!

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