Author: Calypso Finch

Secondary school visit: Sands School, Ashburton.

Today we discovered charred grains! This was especially exciting as we enjoyed a school visit from Sands School, who made Roman style bread at a workshop just before this year’s fieldwork commenced. The Sands pupils joined the team for the afternoon and helped with various fieldwork activities including excavation, sieving and finds washing. Two of the students visited us last year and described various excavation processes to the others; our potential archaeologists are keen to learn more and would like to return as volunteers when they are older. Thank you to all students and staff for today’s help- we hope to see you again in the future!

The excavation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today the team enjoyed better weather and were able to continue planning and excavating features in the sun. Eli’s trench yielded more large pottery finds. The team have also started wet sieving. This is a process which ensures that all soil is thoroughly checked for small fragments such as charcoal, bone, seeds and pottery. The wet sieving team have discovered charred grains, which us great news as we will be able to further analyse these in the lab (see previous ‘cereals’ and ‘breadmaking’ posts). Josh, who discovered the tiny grains whilst wet sieving was really pleased to have spotted them.

 

The Hub

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hub had a busy day, with visits from far and wide. We have almost reached our 200th visitor, so thank you to today’s interested visitors, and we look forward to meeting the 200th visitor tomorrow! At the end of the day we had a fun visit from Jo, Charlotte and Daniel, who came in to see the displays and activities. They added their own coin designs to our Roman coin inspired display. Come and design your own coin at the Hub!

Today the local Ipplepen Primary School had a school trip to the Hub and excavation, to find out more about archaeology and what really happens on site. The excited group from class 4 and class 5- a total of 63 pupils- spent the whole day on a school trip which was organised and led by Ipplepen Archaeological Project’s  Danielle Wootton. The pupils visited the Hub in the morning and then spent the afternoon at the excavation. There were six educational activities, learning about archaeology and Roman life in engaging and relatable ways. Thanks to our intern Calyspso, and Maria and Judy at the Hub, and Jess, Kristin and the archaeology students on site- you were all stars! Also thanks and hello to teachers Miss Kedge and Mrs Clark and the teaching assistants and parents who were all so enthusiastic and helped to make the day a real success.

The first activity was the ‘Potato Game’, where students practised their observation and description skills essential to fieldwork by analysing and describing a potato. Their teachers then guessed which description matched each potato, and thanks to the good recording skills, every guess was correct! Next was an activity based on the first ever finds at Ipplepen; Roman coins. The children looked at replica Roman coins and then designed their own coins, which you can look at in the Hub. The third activity was based on the Iron Age round house evidence found previously on site. Classes 4 and 5 learnt about how round houses are built then they drew their own interpretation of what the site would have looked like.

 

 

Next they were off to the site to make use of their new skills. After a packed lunch, the students had a tour of the site, and then tried their hand at field archaeology. The students started by using a planning frame and a compass to make scaled drawing plans incorporating maths, geography, and their great recording and observation skills they showed us in the ‘Potato Game’! Afterwards, students tried washing pottery sherds with a toothbrush in a washing up bowl and had the opportunity to learn about different types of pottery. One of class 4 and 5’s favourite activities of the day was sieving the spoil heap to look for pottery in the topsoil taken off by machinery. The students were keen to have a go at this activity after a fantastic talk by local volunteer Judy Dewhirst, who told them about her experiences on the dig in previous excavations. Many thanks to Judy for coming in to the Hub to talk to the children, who were inspired by her talk!

It was an action-packed day for the students, who really enjoyed learning more about what life in their village would have been like in the past, as well as how archaeology lets us understand it in the present. Some favourite moments of theirs were the ‘Potato Game’ and sieving. Some students from class 4 even decided they would like to be archaeologists when they are older! Many thanks go out to the young archaeologists of Ipplepen Primary School, and to the invaluable teachers and helpers. Thanks also to the team on site who helped with the day, and to Danielle Wootton for putting the whole experience together!

The excavation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The team have continued to plan, draw and excavate various ditches, post-holes and other interesting features, which has been very rewarding. A lot of progress has been made despite the intermittent rain, and some of the team were reluctant to put down their tools for the day. Jay uncovered many interesting pottery finds, including his “best find yet”, this large fragment of beautifully decorated pottery. Eli also had a great find after excavating all day, discovering large fragments of late prehistoric pottery and burnt material. He said he was very fortunate and that “it is always a treat when you find something like that, it makes it all worthwhile.” Their finds will now be carefully washed, dried and labelled, a key process which the team have been working hard at.

The Hub

The Hub had a busy day today, with visitors from further afield who had seen the site on BBC’s Digging For Britain a while ago and came to hear updates. Our display case is quickly filling up with new discoveries. Tuesday’s additions are beautiful and international fragments of decorated Samian Ware, and a handle fragment of an amphora, probably from continental Europe. Visit us soon to see these amazing finds!

On Monday, many more features were planned and excavated, and more people began washing the pottery. In a prehistoric ditch, a student found a possible sheep mandible, which takes a lot of care to excavate, as shown by Enfys. We would like to give warm welcome to the enthusiastic new volunteers joining us this week- Andrew and Dalton, and we are welcoming back local villagers Mary and Hilary. Andrew enjoyed his first day on site and looks forward to the rest, “I can’t believe I’ve been on a site where such interesting pottery and features have turned up on my first day. It is brilliant to be part of a team and to work with such inspiring young people. I can’t wait for the rest of the week.” Thank you Andrew, we can’t wait to see what it may hold either!

The excavation

After a week of excavation, the team have uncovered a number of features including ditches and post holes. Some features are prehistoric and others appear to date to the Romano-British period.  We have also discovered prehistoric and Roman pottery. The team have been working hard despite the mixture of sun, heat and rain, and have continued to excavate, plan and section the site. We want to say a big thank you to our local Devon volunteers who joined us on our very productive first week. Thank you to Kathryn, Ruth and Albert, who “really enjoyed it” and “would come back next year”. It has been a busy and promising first week, we are looking forward to what the next few have in store for us.

The Hub

The Hub has also had a busy first week, and at the Hub’s after school club on Friday we welcomed some of our youngest visitors from Ipplepen Primary School. They loved seeing their Roman food artwork on display, and guessing what our replica Roman pottery would have been used for. Visit the Hub to see their paintings inspired by past finds from Ipplepen, and to make your own guess on the function of the pottery.

The excavation

The team enjoyed cooler weather today, and continued to photograph and plan the exposed features. Excavation of some features is underway, with gulleys, ditches and post holes being excavated. Kathryn, a local volunteer, and Jonathan, a volunteer from the USA, completed excavating their section of a ditch, which is possibly Medieval or later in date, as it is on the same alignment as some of the scars caused by ploughing. Jonathan is on his first excavation and said: “It is interesting to be able to excavate a ditch and hold pottery fragments in your hand that haven’t been held for hundreds of years!”

The Hub

Today we received lots of visitors excited to learn more about the site, and to come and see the new finds in our display case! Some visitors have followed our progress at Ipplepen over the years and are eagerly anticipating updates on the team’s progress. Keep following the blog to hear more!

A special hello

The team would like to say a special hello to Katy, the site’s ‘auntie’ who’s been a strong supporter since we first discovered the site. We’re all thinking of you, Katy, and hope you enjoy reading our blog.

The Excavation

A very hot day has seen the students and volunteers carefully planning and drawing the exposed features. The team have also been sieving the spoil heaps to see if there is anything to be found in the topsoil. Some pottery fragments were recovered which were then washed, dried and labelled and you can now look at some of these in the Hub.

The Hub

Today the Hub welcomed another wave of visitors, including some of our archaeology students, and a couple of them helped out in the Hub presenting the new finds to a visitor. We also had a special guest, Jim Wills, who is a very important person to the site, as he and the late Dennis Hewings originally discovered the site. Come along to see our new finds.

 

The Hub

The Hub has been attracting its first visitors today, with lots of members of the community keen to learn more about the site and keep up to date with the new finds. Come and see our great displays and handling collection in Ipplepen Methodist Church from 9:30 – 4:15 Monday to Friday. Keep following this blog for exciting daily updates as the excavation continues!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Excavation

The students and volunteers have almost finished cleaning the site, and already we can see a large number of interesting features such as ditches, gulleys and post holes. The team have begun to carefully photograph and plan the trenches before they can begin excavating these exciting features. Some features are possibly late Roman, which is just what the team were looking for. A promising start!