19th November 2016

With Jake, Tav and Pete Bolt.

I tried out a new plastic oversuit I had purchased online for £25. It was okay but the wearing of two long sleeved thermal T’s was an error, I was very warm.

Anyway, at the sharp end, while I drilled and ‘capped’ the obstructing rock in the floor of the dig, Tav fettled the skip run, Pete was clearing away and loading the skip to Jake, who was on the haul and shuttle.

Interestingly I found that dolomitic conglomerate boulder split better using double black cartridges whereas comparable sized boulders of limestone can be split using just a single black cartridge. The split boulder of ‘dol cong’ required some chisel and bar work to extricate it from the sediment but the task was completed. I swapped places with Tav and he started to fill bags with sediment while I set about using more rock splitting technique to remove a couple of stubborn obstructions along the skip run.

That done, we cleared the stack of bags that Tav had steadily accumulated. Tav carried on digging for a little longer and it was quite late, by our usual standards, when we decided to finish the session. There is a very neat stack of bags and rock in the entrance ready for clearing mid-week.

The helmet mounted video camera (SJ4000) that I had thought to try out was not a complete success – I guess I should have turned it on properly as I discovered during a quiet moment between hauling skips.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist