It’s seven weeks until this year’s excavation team lands in Somerset.

In Newcastle all sorts of behind the scenes preparations are happening. The minibus is booked, lists of equipment are being drawn up and we’re all thinking hard about exactly where we should dig this year and why.

Our grant from Brympton Parish council has also arrived (a big thank you to everyone in Brympton for their support).

In week or so the students (Adam, Eleanor, Dave, Georgia, Johanna, Kevin, Lucy and Danni) will have their final briefing and be issued with kit lists. Some of them are currently thinking about exams so I expect the dig seems a long way off.

The third and final week saw the trench extended and a lot of work to investigate the ditches and sort some modern features (including a septic tank outfall pipe) from the ancient features.

Excavating in Week 3 © The Lufton Project

As archaeological excavation is destruction it was important that everything was properly recorded. A lot of drawings, photographs and paperwork were completed.

Danni Recording © The Lufton Project

Towards the end of the excavation Mr Unwin (the landowner) came to look at our trench, He was a very genial and tolerant host and the project is very grateful to Mr Unwin and his family for the support they are giving to this work.

James shows Mr Norman Unwin the trench © The Lufton Project

At the end of the week we had some help from Jamie and Carole Pullen. They lent us a digger and driver to backfill our trench! Then we put the turf back and headed back to Newcastle.

Backfilling the trench © The Lufton Project

Over the weekend we talked to lots of visitors at the open day. Then on Sunday our prayers were answered. The heavens opened and it rained.

James surveying a wet trench © The Lufton Project

Some water in the soil meant that we could see the archaeology and that the digging was a bit easier.

The ring-ditch is revealed as we begin to define and excavate features © The Lufton Project

We worked hard to define and begin to excavate the features. We were rewarded with some tiny pieces of Early to Middle Bronze Age pottery from the ring ditch and some Iron Age pottery from the big ditch.

Kristjan and Fraser working hard © The Lufton Project

We made good progress in Week 2. The water bowser that seemed so important to have in the dryness of Week 1 was a bit redundant…

We went into Week 3 feeling pretty happy with what we’d discovered.

In 2012 we carried out a three week excavation to investigate geophysical anomalies identified in Mr Unwin’s Field. One of these anomalies was circular (B on the graphic below) and such features are usually termed ‘ring-ditches‘, the other was a linear anomaly that was likely to be a ditch (A on the graphic below). The excavation was designed to work out whether the ring-ditch was a part of a burial mound or a prehistoric house and whether it came before or after the ditch.

Geophysics of Mr Unwin's Field © GeoFlo and The Lufton Project

The trench was laid out as a 10m x 10m square and excavated by hand. We started by removing the turf and then, in what was about the only hot and dry week of the Summer, we started excavating.

Cutting the turf © The Lufton Project

We removed ploughsoil and subsoil to a depth of about 0.4m. If a cubic metre of sand weighs about a tonne, we shifted about 40tonnes of spoil by hand! At 40cm deep we were on top of a layer archaeologists call ‘the natural’. This is a geological deposit (in our case a nasty clay) that pre-dates all human activity. Cut into the natural were some features. These included the ditch and arc of the ring-ditch we were looking for. These features were filled with a slightly darker and moister sediment than the surrounding natural and are visible in the following photos as dark stains.

Newcastle Students Kate and Ellie along with local volunteers Pete and Robin have found the ring ditch (visible as a dark arc in the deepest part of the trench). © The Lufton Project

The week was really dry and by the end of it the clay had baked hard. The dried out features had all but disappeared from view. We prayed for rain…

Brown, brown and brown. The trench has dried out and the archaeology's invisible © The Lufton Project

We’re pleased to announce that the big army tent has arrived and been tested by our friends in SSARG.

The Tent Erectors from SSARG © The Lufton Project

Last year we didn’t have much shelter on site (well, we had a couple of gazebos that couldn’t cope with a light breeze). So the tent is a welcome addition to the project. It’ll be shelter on rainy days (many of those I expect), shade on hot days (not many of those!) and  a place to keep our kit and most importantly do the paperwork.

It’s all a reminder that the excavation is coming soon…