25th March 2017

With Jake, Matt and Jonathon.

Jake digging, Matt at the bottom of the slope, Jonathon at the top, me on the haul and shuttle. No-one available for the surface duty today, so the bags and rocks were stacked in the entrance to be removed later in the session.

A steady stream of bags, with the occasional rock, were moved from the dig. I had to go out to the surface to fetch some more bags. Eventually, it was time to move back and clear the stock pile out to the surface. Matt filled the skip, Jake and I took turns to haul the spoil out and Jonathon emptied the bags. Fifty loads in total came to the surface, 48 bags and a couple of rocks that were added to the wall.

About the dig, Jake reported that the floor is dropping down, there are a couple of small steps, and a thin layer of granular material, with some cobbles having a dark manganese coating, reminiscent of some stream beds. Sounds interesting, and there’s still plenty of sediment to remove.

It was glorious on the surface in the warm spring sunshine, and not many flies around, yet.

Author: mendipgeoarch

Archaeologist, Geologist, Speleologist