Lufton excavators graduate in 2014 © Newcastle University

Congratulations to Fraser, Georgia, Lucy, Danni, Johanna and Ellie (who couldn’t make it for this picture). They have all their survived fieldwork at Lufton and gone on to graduate from their degrees.

The Project would like to wish them all the best for the future (especially Lucy who will be rejoining the team for this season’s excavations!)

James and Andy are busy finishing the report on the 2012 excavations. When completed this report will be submitted to the Historic Environment Record.

Andy has spent some time turning the site drawings into a plan of the excavation. The Bronze Age ring ditch is [010] and [030] and is cut by Iron Age ditch [005]/[036].

Further information about the Bronze Age and Iron Age in Somerset can be found in the South Western Archaeological Research Framework.

Plan of the 2012 trench showing prehistoric features © Andrew Agate and The Lufton Project.

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