Sunday 17 May 2015

T-minus 6 weeks

The sun has started to make an appearance for more than a few minutes a day, and that can only mean one thing: digging season is nearly upon us! Preparations are well underway to continue our excavations down into the 2nd century AD layers of the site, and we can't wait to get started.

Keep those registrations coming, as we're nearly full! This season promises to be really excellent, with some exciting talks lined up and hopefully some fascinating archaeology to be uncovered! There are still spaces on the Undergraduate Fieldschool (27th June - 10th July), and the two one-week Public Fieldschools (12th - 17th and 19th - 24th July). Contact edward.peveler@arch.ox.ac.uk for more details.


In the mean time, we had the pleasure of showing the Early Medieval Archaeology Student Symposium conference group around the village in April. Whilst the focus was on the Abbey and other early medieval finds from the village, including the 'foederati' burials in the Dyke Hills, we also had a bit of brief back-story on the prehistoric and Roman landscape to put it in context, and an update on the results of the ongoing excavations in the allotments. We then went on to be shown around the medieval burh of Wallingford, with a fascinating tour from Dr Neil Christie of Leicester University.

Edward Peveler gives a talk on the prehistory of Dorchester to the EMASS 2015 delegates

Our thanks go to Neil, David Wilkinson, and the Dorchester Abbey for their help in making it such a successful and insightful field trip.