We’ve come back energised and eager after the Christmas and New Year break. In theory. In reality, we want a longer holiday and more time on the beach. However, one mustn’t complain – we’re employed and doing a job that is pretty damn cool. Humble brag.
The new year has brought with it a new plan of attack. Way back in October I blathered about a staged approach to the excavation. This still holds true, though we are now switching to the second stage a little bit earlier. The excavations of the waterfront trench and the hideous gravels have given us some pretty cool results. However, we’re mindful that we’ve only got a few more months (and months=budget) to acquit the REALLY exciting part of the investigation – the excavation of the blacksmiths’/shoemakers’ shop. As of last week we’ve slid seamlessly into Stage II works, beginning to peel back the demolition rubble and the accrued silts covering the shop. You, my dedicated and ever-so vociferous readership, will be first to know what we find.
The site has been exposed, ready for surgery, like a patient etherised upon a table
The excavated areas are being left at just the right time. Sylvana has neatly defined the exact edge of the 1830s waterfront, marked by a log and clay infill (above which would have been situated the ca.1836 workshops). A series of reclamation fills in the late 1830s/40s then extended the waterfront northward. I have battled through the gravels to hit paydirt. Under seven different surfacing events which date from the 1830s right through to the 1870s I have found a neat, rectilinear (straight-edged) surface of cobbled dolerite. Likely collected from the rocky shore and picked off the ground during clearance, these stones generally mark very early (i.e. 1830-33) occupation. What we could be seeing here is evidence of an early structure or working surface – potentially to do with the two structures which we know were in this area by at least 1833. It’s early days yet, but it’s a pretty nifty result nonetheless.
It doesn’t look like much does it…
