20th September, Harry Stoke my first dig
My first archaeological excavation experience was in July 1986 (or 87) working on a Bristol City Community Programme for the long-term unemployed. I joined the excavation in its last two months, a medieval country site with some stone surface and possibly a bit of Roman tile. It wasn’t huge, and was staffed by a crew of either interested and sometimes archaeologically qualified people and the reluctant and petulant. It was run by the Bristol City Museum’s Rod Burchill, or ‘Rod the Pot’, an expert in medieval pottery, short, pot-bellied, with a bad stutter and archaeological beard, combining strict marshalling of the workforce and a ready laugh.
I knelt on the surface we were cleaning off (nothing there by the way) barely knowing how to hold and use a trowel, watching the others in hope of revelation. I tried to copy their movements. Likewise using a mattock was difficult at first, it seemed to have a life of its own, but with instruction i learnt. I also learnt the mattock swing could become a golfing shot, thanks to one unenthusiastic digger, but keen golfer*. I did a little planning (i.e. drawing the stone surface to scale).
We sat in the site hut doing crosswords at tea-break and there was the ritual of putting the kettle on the large gas rings beforehand. I discovered steel-toe capped boots, how heavy they were, how they must be cleaned before entry into the hut. I was a fit cyclist, so i coped well physically. There were very few women on the site, and i was part-time, (3 days), which is very unusual on a dig, because you want to keep continuity as you dig features, but we handled it, and i don’t see why archaeological units could not do this now. All you have to do is communicate on the switch day.
Other things I learnt was to make sure i was on time, to clean the tools after use at the end of each day, and not to walk on the trowelled area! I was also terribly scared of making a mistake as i first trowelled, but this can ease. However, i don’t think you ever lose that fear completely, say when you come to a type of feature you have not excavated before. They are all unique even when they are similar.
After the dig was over, some of us were transferred to the wildlife conservation unit, where i learnt new skills. It was a bit of a shock at first, but i grew to value that work as well and it became important in my understanding of the work of our ancestors. Experimental archaeology, as it were.
Rod later recommended me to another archaeological project a little while later, for which i am grateful and was kind to me whenever i saw him subsequently in the Museum. He died a few years ago.
*actually i’m not sure whether this wasn’t a spade now i think about it but either way lumps of stone and mud went hurtling across the site and over the hedge!
Cullen Archaeology 