Hunting Hall Archaeology Blog
A daily account of our Hunting Hall dig.
3rd June 2025 : Dig Diary Day 2
After such strong gusts of wind during the night it was a relief this morning to find our trusty tents exactly where we left them yesterday (it wouldn’t have been the first time one of our tents had gone walkabout in strong wind). Not quite as many volunteers today but sufficient to keep the momentum going in both trenches though we were interrupted by a few heavy afternoon showers that sent us scurrying for shelter in the tents.
Today’s photos show how our activities are aimed at this year’s objectives. The first photo shows the very deep feature first uncovered a couple of years ago that included lots of charcoal. Was this industry for making iron? We’ll expand this feature hoping it might give up more evidence.
Ever since the geophysical survey in 2018 we’ve been aware of a mysterious 15 metre diameter circle. We now think that the second photo indicates its structure. It’s among these packed large stones that we’ve already found a couple of bone fragments. The purpose of these stones is still uncertain. Could it enclose a Bronze Age burial area? We’ve found lots of pits within the area. That’s just one possibility. Watch this space.
The third photo shows the outcome of our early work in the inner of the two ring ditches that surround the entire site. It’s just possible to make out the interface between the clay and the dark organic rich soil towards the bottom. Also visible are two field drains, one medieval, the other victorian. We’ve come back to this because it gave us lots of food for thought towards the end of last year’s dig.
More showers and fairly breezy again tomorrow (the pattern for the rest of the week really) but we’ll be there from 10.00. See you then?
