Hunting Hall Archaeology Blog
A daily account of our Hunting Hall dig.
18th June 2025 : Dig Diary Day 17
We’ve had an amazing turnout of volunteers today that allowed us to make progress in all areas of our two trenches. Trench 8 was as productive as ever and providing us with today’s highlight of several pieces of broken pottery with much more of it still to be removed. It looks like an entire pot that’s been smashed and was found immediately adjacent to the Beehive quern. More finds of bone and wooden stakes too plus what appears to be a concentric stone structure right at the bottom of the ditch. Surely a candidate to be sectioned.
In trench 10 Carole managed to remove a huge piece of what is probably cattle bone in the immediate area of the big stones. Major excavation around these stones is planned for tomorrow that we hope will finally resolve things one way or the other about whether they do in fact form a component of the Iron Age palisade. Late in the day a worked agate core was recovered by Lara and Hanlan from the base of a pit at the very northern end of Trench 10. Kristian suggests that this is from the Mesolithic period and so could be one of the oldest artefacts we’ve ever found on this site.
As we’ve just completed our second week I think it’s time for some half time statistics. Thanks to Helen’s immaculate record keeping we’ve had an unbelievable amount of volunteer support. During the first two weeks of the dig we’ve had 43 volunteers, many of whom were new to us and to the hobby, who between them have provided an astonishing 726 hours of their time. With every hour important during a time limited dig I, on behalf of Lowick Heritage Group, want to thank every one of you for your efforts. It’s so much appreciated. We’ve also had 10 visitors, some of whom have left us with wonderful comments about their experience and these will be shared with the Community Foundation once the dig is over.
There doesn't seem to be an end in sight to the current weather pattern (though Friday looks as though it’s going to be especially hot) so we hope to see some of you before the end of our dig a week on Sunday.
