What's sitting beneath our feet?

Weren't we lucky with the weather! A forecast of a very wet day, given out by the BBC, was, fortunately enough for us, wrong! It wasn't blazing sunshine but apart from being overcast with the hint of sun, it was really rather warm.

Northampton Archaeology Unit were our tutors for the day, Mark, Carol and Gemma, accompanied by Tony from AOC.

The morning was spent learning how to set up the grids we would need in the afternoon in order to do the geo-phys. I wasn't there for this bit, but the feedback I got was very positive.

In the afternoon we were let loose on the machines!

We worked with the CADAS resistivity meter and 4 of the magnetometers from NA Unit.

Each of the magnetometers has to be calibrated to the person handling the machine. The absolute minimum of metal infested clothing needs to be worn and I can’t tell you how difficult that is, trying to find glasses, trousers, shoes and bras (!) not containing any metal.

Having donned the equipment, the ritual of calibration is somewhat Masonic and all that was missing were the funny handshakes! The bearer has to stand in a hastily built contraption pointing out the 4 compass points. They press start and simply follow the instructions. However, to the anybody watching with not an inkling of what’s going on, they must wonder to themselves the sanity of the person wielding a strange H-shaped contraption, head bowed, and apparently following some bizarre dance moves, before offering the contraption up to the gods!!! To the initiated, this is calibrating the machine to the person, using the 4 compass points, the final calibration being to point the machine skyward. 

It was a great day, although everyone was getting a bit tired towards the end. The machines, both res and mag, are not heavy in themselves, but when manipulated, need to be held just away from the body. The mag has a counterbalance in the form of a rucksack, containing water, to which it is attached, but the res has no such luxury and the constant lifting and swinging forward soon meant that by the end of the day, volunteers were slow to answer Carol’s call to finish the grid! Personally, I love doing res. I find it very therapeutic and once you get in the swing, even better.

The day ended with a quick download of data from the res, but due to problems, we didn’t get to see the results. Can’t wait for the interpretation workshop.