Kurt Hunter-Mann, site director Why do we dig?
The site director leads the excavation team. His or her first job is to talk to the site owners and archaeological curators and agree where the dig will take place. The reasons for excavating are different in each case: an important site might be destroyed by redevelopment, a change in farming practices, road-building or erosion. Sometimes research excavations are planned to answer specific questions about a site or time period. These factors will determine how long the dig lasts as well as the number, size, position and depth of the trenches.


Trowels at the ready
Once these have been established the site director can get the excavating team and the necessary equipment together and start work. A site number will be given to the excavation and this becomes an important part of the site record.

 

Excavation starts

Getting dug in
The first job is to set out the plan of the trench and fix its position in relation to the National Grid. This will establish for all time exactly where the dig took place and where things were found.

 

 The survey team
Drawing the site record Careful excavation and recording of the layers then begins. The top layer might be turf or concrete and it might cover layers of garden soil, stony rubble, ash or fine sand. Features such as walls, pits, ditches or hearths are carefully recorded and drawn on plan.
Each layer or feature is given an individual context number and described and planned, either digitally or by hand; these records are stored on computer for later analysis and interpretation. Digitising site plans
Finds start to emerge Finds tray Emerging artefacts
Any man-made object or artefact which emerges is given the number of the context where it was found, placed in a tray or bag and passed to the finds assistant.