Hunting Hall Archaeology Blog
A daily account of our Hunting Hall dig.
8th June 2025 : Dig Diary Day 7
Today marks the end of our first week of excavation and by every measure it’s been very successful. Not only the progress we’ve made on cleaning the trenches but what’s been especially pleasing is the number of new volunteers who have joined us this time. The discovery of what may be a wooden post in the ring ditch will perhaps offer the chance of testing its age by dendrochronology (analysis of tree growth rings), a more accurate assessment than radiocarbon dating. We may have found two posts and these possibly indicate the presence of a picket fence within the ditch, perhaps to prevent animals (and children!) falling in. We continue to clean very carefully around the very deep posthole at the centre of our mystery circle. This may take several days. There haven’t yet been many finds but that’s not unusual during the cleaning phase. Yesterday there was a very small flint ‘debitage’, that is a small element of flint that chipped off a larger piece during the knapping process. We’re now looking forward to our second week. Archaeologist Kristian Pedersen has identified the areas on which we’ll be concentrating, most notably an area of cobbled surface and also two clusters of large, deeply embedded stones. Seems we could be in for some warm sunny weather next week. Don’t forget the factor 50! On site from 10.00 tomorrow as usual.
