PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 18 – WINDING UP WEDNESDAY

After yesterday afternoon’s colossal effort, this morning was sedate. Georgina & I spent the morning cleaning the worst off some of the finds so that they could be stored until it was time for proper cleaning and analysis. We also had a look at the trench & put a few sods back in place. The

PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 15 – SUNNY DAY SUNDAY

We had more fathers than mothers on site today and it was scorchio. Sondage D has been taken down to ‘the natural’, Feature 1 has been cleaned up and recorded, ditto Feature 2, and elsewhere more of Context 3 is being peeled back. Judging from the pottery found in it, Context 3 looks like it

PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 13 – FEATURE FRIDAY

We have been concentrating on the feature previously known as Idris’s Doughnut and trying to find ‘the natural’. The Doughnut continues to grow and now seems to be a made cobble platform of some sort & probably pre-dating the existing buildings in the area. The surface a short distance below it certainly pre-dates them –

PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 12 – TAUNTING THURSDAY

I’m sure the site’s archaeology is taunting us. Sondage A revealed what looks like the rest of the Doughnut. It’s a feature built of medium sized pebbles and it may well be a pad to go under a wooden post. After a day of finding mostly worked stone, today continued in much the same way

PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 9 – STONED SUNDAY

We were at it again today, delving underground, lifting up rocks to peer into Pendle’s past. It’s getting more complex and older. The largest amount of pottery today was Medieval & there was precious little of that though Gayle did find a beauty. By far the most prolific material found today was stone, and chert

PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 6 – THEORY THURSDAY

The rain returned today and it seemed to be enjoying itself. We cleaned about a third of yesterdays finds and theorised about what the artifacts we have found so far may tell us about the site’s history. We also looked at our soggy trench and saw a few things that have been exposed by the

PENDLE’S HIDDEN VALLEY DIG – DAY 2 – CERAMIC SUNDAY

Today we started on our first ‘proper’ context (image below). In other words the first undisturbed archaeological layer. We were still finding Victorian material and prehistoric chert but we have also unearthed some Medieval pottery. The first & best sherd of Medieval pot was found by Steve and is our Find Of The Day. It