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CURRENT
& ONGOING PROJECTS:
MAHG has
a number of current and ongoing projects which are set out in the
following sections.
Burnham
Tollesbury
Moot
Hall
We would like to extend
our thanks to the landowner for providing MAHG with this exciting
opportunity and their kind hospitality. Apart from some cool weather we have
achieved some excellent results and been able to refine our original
thinking - filling in one more blank in the history of Essex and Iron
Age occupation in this particular area.
The
observed anomaly
is believed to be a rectangular
Iron Age defended enclosure, the purpose of which we hope to define by
further survey & excavation. The enclosure itself measures some 72 metres wide
(North / South) by 85 metres in 'visible' length (West / East) and is unusual
in its size and regular shape. The actual East / West dimension has
still to be determined as it appears to continue under the adjacent
modern track way and possibly into the next field. A number of the
ditches seem to have a strip of clay on the inner edge. Is this
evidence of the position of the rampart? The ditch fill consisted of typically
three distinct layers. All of the pot sherds have come from the top
fine silty fill. Were the ditches re-cut? With no pot
sherds after 1st Century AD, did the occupation cease and the site become
deserted for some reason?
The
North / South anomaly (track way , or whatever else it may be
considered to be) is likely to be of Bronze Age origin, or earlier.
Pottery
sherds from the ditch fills have been dated by Nick Lavender as a mix
of prehistoric and Middle Iron Age.
A
preliminary report has been prepared setting out the
findings of this initial site investigation. A copy is held in the
MAHG HQ library.
....
and that's another one!!! .... In goes Trench E.
For an overview of the crop marks see photo on
Geophysics
page.
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SITE
RE-OPENED SATURDAY, 7th JUNE 2008.
Yes
- we are back at Tollesbury - we have finally received clearance to
work on BOTH the Home Field AND the
South Field.
The
trailer has been relocated to the Home Field to make our life easier
and to keep it clear of Jenny's grass.
20th
June 2008. News
From The
Trenches: Open
Letter From Our Esteemed Site Director - "Hello
everyone. Well, I've had my last day until October and what a
turnout! Thank you all for coming to slop some vintage Tesco cheapo
plonk with me and for your kind thoughts for the immediate future. I
promise to send the Duke your regards! I am very much looking
forward to re-visiting Rendlesham Forest, the cream tea-rooms of
Exmoor and spending seven days in and around the Brecon Beacons before
going off for some quality holiday time at Fairport
Convention's Cropredy festival (just showing my age) and then
checking out lots of French campsites with the motor home.
Good luck to you all and don't forget to look after Brian, I know
he will do a really great job for you. Thank you again - kindest
regards, Mike".
Number
on
Site: 10?
Weather: Very
kind.
2006
Season:
Eight
and a half on site on the last day of the 2006 season - that's if you count the chairman popping
in for a quick nose! That being the last day at Tollesbury, Carrington
Farm for 2006 there was a bit of clearing/cleaning to be
finished in trench P where bone and pot sherds (possibly from
cremations 4 and 5) are still coming up. We are ensuring that
due reverence is being given to any bone which could be of human
origin. PC Dave continued his study of trench R, which he has
now proved sterile, with the exception of his cremation find!
Dave P found a bag full of bone fragments in J200. Brian and
Mike have hopefully completed the plotting of the northern-most trenches
in case the farm management want to back-fill during the winter.
Ed, Stuart, Sandra and Bernie worked tirelessly in P until the wine
was opened at lunchtime, to celebrate a successful year on site.
Any notation, sketching or site management from 1pm onwards might
seem slightly blurred to the accidental observer!! Mike Rees
would like to thank ALL of the stalwarts who worked diligently and
never gave up on the site. Such a shame that no new (or old)
blood came to help us. Let's hope for a change in fortune for 2007.
If you are reading this and feeling guilty, don't - just turn up
next year - we could easily occupy 12 to 15 diggers every weekend.
We still have about a mile of anomalies to sort!
Footnote:
I think it is relevant to note that the last digging day in
2006 was the 11th day of the 11th month. I believe that
we should use it in affectionate remembrance of Bill 'Nobby' Clark
and his faith in and dedication to the site.
He
always said that one day it would yield great interest.
Surely eight cremations and a wealth of evidence bears witness to
his submissions? I would like to extend festive greetings to
the super digging team and Nobby's family at this time. Mike
Rees - Site Director.
PC
Dave locates Cremation No. 6
All
recently cleared areas are beginning to show features, or, in the case
of
PC Dave, cremation number 6!! Estimated to be 3rd Century. The
pottery fabric looks to provide a good example of previously dated
finds of local origin.
Additional
evidence of a rim sherd might indicate another example of the 'dog
dish' covering - more news to follow.
By
way of a reminder - the dig
is open Saturday 24 March 2007, weather permitting, 09:30 to 4:00 pm
& toilets are now available for our lady Members.
All
are welcome and we look forward to seeing you on site - even it's
just to see how things are going!
If
you want to check that the dig is open on any given Saturday from
March 2007 before heading off to the site, or for further information,
contact
Mike Rees on the day (before 09:00 hrs) on 01621 854974.
HISTORY:
A
report on 2004 / 2005 activities and findings is currently in
preparation. In the meantime repeated below is an article written by
Mike Rees (Site Director) that appeared in the Winter 2005 copy of
the MAHGazine:
"I
thought it was high time I produced an up-to-date report on the
progress made during 2005. For those of you who have not visited our
site, it is shared between two fields on 'set-aside' areas or between
crop rotations.
The
early part of the year was spent re-visiting trenches dug under the
direction of our old friend Nobby Clark. This was to ascertain his
features and then to 'move out' into the field so as to investigate
the crop marks (seen in the now infamous aerial photograph) more
fully.
We
found the ditches and a beam slot mentioned in his interim report and
opened up five parallel trenches on a north/south alignment. The
machinery and expertise was supplied by one of our members, Dagan
Mansworth, without which we would still be about 80 - 90 cubic yards
of shifted soil behind! These produced a mix of beam slots and post
holes amongst a madness of natural (?) geology which was not only
confusing then, but remains so to this date! Very little
pot/brick/tile, etc, was found and we were beginning to lose hope of
ever finding our 'villa'. Bernie and Brian's resistivity readings led
to the opening of three more trial trenches which only served to prove
at that time, that there were no features despite magnificent technicolor
printouts from the meter!
Returning
to our first trenches, and having discussed whether the ire of the
Chairman would be worse than throwing ourselves into the stinking mud
on the waterside, we began to dig deeper - well below the 18" to
34" shown in Nobby's report. AT LAST we were mightily encouraged
as some features began materialising. Charred beams, real beam slots,
more post holes and pottery! Stuart managed to uncover what appears to
be evidence of early iron working - to be further investigated
following comment from David Andrews.
Riding
on the crest of a spoil heap, we moved back again to our later
trenches and removed more depth. NOW we began to find features from
the crop marks - roughly 3 feet down.
We
called the digger back in and extended existing trenches whilst Brian
Riley plotted a line which would supposedly travel through the eye of
our large circular (hopefully) ring ditch. Matthew (Dagan's dad)
started to cut the trial trench along this line but the soil proved so
hard and dry that the small digger began to disintegrate! Ed Heigham
was 'watching' and I was hammering in one of the retaining bolts on
the hydraulic arm every few bucket loads!
After
about 20 metres it was decided to curtail activities and have Matthew
back after some rain had softened the soil. Ed pleaded for him to
continue to the ranging pole which signified Brian's 'eye' - this was
about 4 metres away. He agreed, being obviously fearful of a dentist,
retired or not! After several minutes, three or four clouts of the pin
and grunts from the diesel, Ed screamed at Matthew to 'WHOA!'. A very
stunned driver froze, muttered something about '...not being in the
cavalry' and duly obeyed. Ed had spotted some grey ware pottery rim
and had saved an almost undamaged cremation seal from instant
destruction.
The
first moments of exposure
of cremation 1....
....and
on lifting the lid .... the
small flagon and one of the goblets could
be seen. Half of the other goblet was also discernable.
The
mixture of ashes, bone and
soil being carefully removed and
bagged.
The
assemblage shown is the washed, marked and assembled cremation 1 urn,
flagon, goblets,
and 'dog dish' cover.
Mark
Atkinson (Essex Field Archaeological Unit) kindly offered the services
of their 'Flotation Separation' machine and we received back at MAHG a
bag of cleaned, washed and filtered ash and bone. Our honoured
Chairman put his hand in his pocket so we were able to send the ashes
to the Museum of London for analysis and a written report by Natasha
Powers - it makes fascinating reading. This is available for anyone to
read at our HQ.
You
may have heard rumours of MAHG being associated with unlawful
practices! Well, you'd be right! After we had exhumed the cremation, I
was informed that I needed to apply to the Home Office for a licence
before digging it up! Luckily I escaped a spell in the stocks by
explaining that the likelihood of relatives of our 2nd century person
witnessing the dreadful deed was remote!
As
the footprint of the pot was drawn and plotted, some had been
examining the aerial photos again and deduced that there ought to be
another burial about two metres away, either to the north-east or to
the south-west, depending on which blob on the photo we had chanced
upon.
Before
we could arrange a further visit by Matthew, it was decided to trowel
out a wider section of the trench - primarily to locate any missing
sherds from the large grey ware container.
As
I understand it, being in Southampton drilling holes in my daughter's
walls, Brian found the rim of a second (truncated) cremation urn about
a metre east of the first and announced his discovery with some
fervour and jubilation! As folks gathered around the discovery, Stuart
announced with MUCH more dignity and decorum that HE had found another
(truncated) cremation vessel about a metre west of the first,
completing a row of three in total! Not to be outdone, he then
informed the audience that HIS urn was accompanied by two drinking
goblets, almost identical to the two found inside the first cremation
pot. We expect nothing less from Stuart - right? The scene on the
field that morning was described by a casual observer as '.... like
kids at Christmas ..'.
Brian
locates cremation 2 and soon after .................
Stuart
locates cremation 3. Note the goblet against side of pot. Another
sits
directly behind the pot.
These
two cremation vessels are currently being cleaned and marked by our
magical members who gladly spend their Wednesday evenings spooning.
Part
three of my report will appear in the next MAHGazine. In the meantime
please visit Brickhouse Farm on a Wednesday to see the results of our
labours.
Digging
at Tollesbury finished for the year on November 19th 2005 and we hope
to start up again at the end of March, 2006.
We
have a small but excellent digging squad, but would very much like to
see more members on their knees in 2006!"
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Maldon
Town Council wants the Group to investigate beneath the
flagstones of the prison exercise yard of the Moot Hall (the
ground floor of the Moot Hall was used as a police station 1863-1920).
Proposals have been submitted and approval awaited.
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MAHG
