Open Day

Our latest new recruits from Leiden University (NL) arrived on site today, just in time to help with the open day. They settled in really quickly and were keen to get to work. When I asked them how they were finding the place, they said that they'd had a good idea of what to expect because of reading this blog. So now I'm feeling quite proud of this little blogging endeavour. The open day was a great success. We had loads of visitors from all walks of life and several film crews from across the island came to report on what we have been doing. Visitors had the opportunity to see the full trench with the post holes labelled and coloured string representing the different structural arrangements. One of the team was always on hand to explain what could be seen and what all the tangle of different lines meant (based on the arrangements of the post holes, different structures would have been in use at different times. New buildings were not always placed in exactly the same spot as old buildings hence the overlapping circular and rectangular arrangements of post holes). We also had a number of finds on display, both those found during our excavation and some from private collections.

We are hoping to repeat the success of the venture on Monday when c.300 school children will descend on the site.

In the afternoon, some of us went to look at the 18th century kiln site located about 5-10 mins walk from our excavation. The pottery kiln was originally used to make pots for the sugar industry in the area. With our pottery specialist (Loe) in tow, we went in further search of the potential sources of clay which would have been used. And, to make a nice change, it wasn't me that had to wade the river to sample potential sources.

The plan for the next few work days is that Loe and I will go in search of clay across the island, with as many victims...I mean...willing volunteers as possible. The rest of the team will split into two groups, with some helping Mark look for Colonial sites and the rest sectioning and drawing post holes (excavating half the post hole to a) check it is genuine and b) see if we can tell how/why it was refilled).