Live Love Laugh Food.......... and archaeology!!!!

A year ago, I bumped into this chap in Costco. I'd been stalking him down the aisles as I was sure I'd seen Hog Roast embroidered on his polo shirt...and I was right. I wrote his name and number on a scrap of paper I had on me, and then over the last 11 months successively lost and found it amongst my pile of "To Do" things.

Anyway, we went for breakfast at his cafe on Beake Avenue to sound him (and his food) out and we weren't disappointed. His breakfast was scrummy and I booked him on the spot to do a hog roast for us for the BAIT end of project party.

However, as much as I was looking forward to a hog roast, we just didn't get the numbers which would have made it viable, so Jamie suggested a BBQ. Yep, no problem I said and so it was.

Enjoying the BBQ

I just wish I'd had the time to savour more of it but with talking to people, all I managed was a burger and a halloumi cheese and pepper kebab!!! My hubbie made up for it and I think he ended up having a bit of everything.

Rita's hubby and mine

It was delicious, and I can recommend Jamie and his company to anyone wanting to leave the catering to someone else. You can contact him via the website:

http://www.livelaughlovefood.co.uk/

So the rest of the party. We prepared the hall and it did look good. We didn't have many finds as the nice ones are at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum Exhibition (Roman Empire: Power and People).
We were able to display examples of the different types of pottery and had examples of all the reports produced, including the DBA, geo-phys, pottery assessments etc and literature about the Herbert Exhibition and about CADAS.

Pottery and Reports

For me, the most fun part were the photos from the different events held over the year which we posted on the boards and on the walls. And in the background was a slide show of all the photos taken.

 Our guests included members of MOLA who geo-physed our fields, Dr Kevin Leahy (CADAS Vice-prosident) and his wife, Ben Wallace and his family from Warwick HER, Ian Soden (DBA), AOC representatives (Cat and Tara), our very patient farmer and his wife (Steve and Alison Deeming), the lady whos fault it was in the first place (!) Thelma Gee, my committee and of course a number of those very important people who we couldn't have done without, OUR VOLUNTEERS.

All in all it was a great day, helped by the glorious weather we had for the duration.

Enjoying the sunshine

and it's really really near the end....

....so much so that we're starting to organize the end of project party. Hints on what you can expect below....

  

Watch out in your email box for your invite.

The British Museum touring exhibition has finally opened it's doors at the Herbert. Tickets can be purchased online or at reception for £5 with the usual concessions. See their web site The Herbert for more information.
I was invited to the launch night and was blown away by some of the artifacts. The milestone from Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, the silver pig from Alcester and a large piece of wall plaster, integlio and other artifacts from Leicester. Then there's the objects from the BM which make up the touring part of the exhibition. Beautiful marble sculptures from the homes of the Emperors Tiberius and Hadrian, jewelry, coins and even children's clothing among the pottery, statues and other Roman accoutrements.

For the those among you who like their technology, there's a chance to play Roman-opoly, see Vesuvius erupt and other hands-on techno stuff. There's lots going on throughout the exhibition, so get online and see what's available.

And of course there's an opportunity to view the Broadwell's display. We have a lovely big case and we hope we've done justice to the project and shown our best pieces. I was very proud to be asked to take part in this exhibition and we couldn't have done so without your valuable input as volunteers. SO WELL DONE TO ALL OF YOU.

Regarding the rest of the work to be done, the school's pack is nearing completion and so to is the final report so as soon as they're available I'll let you know.

"And now, the end is here and so we face the final curtain...."

Where has the last year gone?????

The last 2 workshops are under our belt (publication and archiving) and the finds and paper work are just about to go into storage at the Warwick Museum.

Both workshops were more interesting than I thought they would be and they provoked a lot of discussion and group work.

However, for me the crux of the day was the unveiling of the geo-physics report. When it was first sent to me at work, I opened it and screamed!!!!!! Well more of a loud squeak actually, but it got heads turning.
Now......look at the picture below and see why.......

It's going to take a while to sort out this little lot, but it seems we have a previously unknown Iron-Age site with lots of other interesting features. The report can be found on our website under BAIT:

www.covarch.co.uk

But the project is not over just yet......

We are still working on the school's pack. I've seen a draft and it looks absolutely great. It will be given to the 3 schools in the area.

Also, you may recall me already saying, the work at Broadwell coincides with the British Museum exhibition currently on tour at the moment - Roman Empire: Power & People. This exhibition consists of 160 objects from the BM, supplemented, as it tours, with additional artifacts from the locality, and we were very honoured to be asked to take part in the exhibition. We will have a display case of artifacts from the site, including flue tiles, roof tiles, painted plaster, examples of local and imported pottery and coins.
The exhibition opens on Saturday 17th May and you can find out more details at the Herbert website

And of course we have to have an end of project party. So, for the volunteers out there, keep an eye on your email for the details.

And the results are.......

So... the geophys is complete and the report is in. I can hardly wait for the reveal but as a little taster...do you know what it is yet? 

Join us on Saturday 22nd March to find out.

We're starting at 9am as we have a pretty full-on day ahead of us, starting with archaeological publication in the morning, the geophysics results and then archiving of the finds in the afternoon.

So don't forget to bring lunch

See you all there

The final hurdle

Hiya All,
The geophysics on the 2 fields..... IS DONE and we eagerly wait for the results. The finds are with the specialist and will be returned late February along with the reports and we are busy number crunching and exercising our literary skills working on the 2nd part of the HLF application to procure the second part of the funding.

For you, we still have to plan a workshop on publication and archiving. The archiving will include handling the finds and getting them put in their boxes ready to be passed onto Warwick Museum for storage. Oh... and yes there will be a small item concerning the results of the geophys!!!!

So watch this space

"And now, the end is near And so we face the final workshops"

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

I should have posted before Xmas, but I'm afraid life got in the way! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. I most certainly did with a week up in Castleton keeping cosy in the caravan, with late mornings and early nights, followed by a week of manic activity at Centre Parcs, where we threw ourselves into a flurry of high octane water rides (wild rapids and the Cyclone), paint balling, tennis, field archery and bike rides. Needless to say I was grateful to get back to work for a rest! .

So from the immortal lines from "My Way" from ol' blue eyes himself, we have just 2 more workshops to go! Where did 2013 disappear to I ask myself. We've certainly achieved an awful lot in the months since we started the project, having worked our way through all the processes of an archaeological project.

You volunteers have been amazing, and for me it's been really nice to meet lots of new people from all walks of life, some of them getting involved in a hobby that previously they have never thought about.

The pottery and small finds are off being assessed by the experts, and we have just 2 workshops remaining, one on publication and the final one on archiving. AND we have a date for the geo-phys, which is this Monday, 20th January. The team from Northampton, who we all met on the geo-phys workshop, will be heading up a team of 7, I believe, and aim to do the 2 fields, 15 hectares, in 3 days. It's all a bit Time-Teamish. So the bumble-bee dance will be perfomed en masse. An interesting sight for anyone just passing!!!

Our thoughts must also turn to the forthcoming exhibition at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum
"Roman Empire: Power and People" exhibition from May to August this year, where some of the Broadwell finds will be on display. As you may know, the exhibition originates from the British Museum and will tour around the country. The bulk of the exhibition will be supplied by the British Museum, with local influences being add at the various venues around the country. CADAS, Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, Leicester and Alcester will be contributing artifacts.

Watch out for further news on this amazing exhibition and also about the 2 final workshops.

Louise 1983's photostream

Louise 1983's photostream on Flickr.

So what's been occurring??

My apologies for not blogging for some time, but it's been a month of highs and lows.

Since the geo-phys workshop, hubbie and I were supposed to go on holiday to Viva la France! but that never happened as we had a very poorly sick dog. She is an old lady, so recovery will be slow, but she's a lot better than she was. Bless her little cotton socks!!

However, she is now taking the mickey and has decided that she likes to be waited on hand and foot, and general dog-food is now no longer good enough for her highness!!! See spoilt dog above.

In the BAIT world, the geo-phys interpretation workshop turned out to be a "disaaaastor darling" (to coin Craig RH catchphrase from Strictly) in terms of the results from our geo-phys activity. The resisitivity meter got its knickers in a twist and the grids were gobbledygook and as for the magnetometer, well, watches, glasses, zips etc had a profound affect on the results. However, John from Northampton Unit, did a fine job in de-bunking some of the more mysterious features of Geoplot using another site which had slightly more better results than ours! 

There is no news on a date for Northampton to do our main geo-phys survey as they are extremely busy trying to catch-up on all the sites they haven't been able to do earlier in the year. Watch this space. 

Yesterday saw us back at the Broadwell Victory hall for a post excavation assessment. Tony Walsh from AOC gave the talk, whilst I busied myself at the back trying to get the last of the finds re-bagged and marked up. After lunch, those of us who stayed behind managed to complete all the bagging and sorting from the main field walking session, leaving just the 2nd field walking pottery to be marked. 

I haven't had a chance to look at all the finds, but from what I've seen it's mainly grey-ware with a bit of Medieval and more modern stuff. There have been spotted a few pieces of potential tesserae so it will be interesting to get them confirmed, lots of small bits of building material and very few bone fragments. What is this site all about????? 

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. 

Finds processing part deux

And so onto finds processing part 2 where it was more of the same from last week, except with less pinnies!

Unfortunately I wasn't there, but I believe Olwen and Dave were ably assisted by Cat. I was in London with Hubble to view the Pompeii exhibition. It was B R I L L I A N T !!!!!!

If you didn't get a chance to see it......sort of tough, 'cos it's finished now.

However, watch this blog for more details of the recently publicized British Museum touring exhibition "Roman Empire: Power and People". At the moment it is in Bristol, and is due to grace the hallowed floors of the Herbert galleries in May 2014. Although the main exhibition consists of over 150 artifacts from the BM, when it reaches The Herbert it will be joined by museum artifacts from the Lunt, as well as some from Rugby, Leicester and Alcester, who as you know (or indeed may not know) have strong Roman connections.

I can now reveal, that our prolific site at Broadwell (in terms of pottery), is also to be included in the exhibition! Watch this space for more info.

Finds processing...with pinnies!!!!

Hiya All, and welcome to my 22nd post of the project! I've just posted the latest photos onto Flickr with a copy here on the blog. I particularly like the one of Gerry in his pinnie!!

Finds processing begins with washing the finds, which I what we started this week. I can't believe how many bags we've got....well maybe I can if I look at the picture from the 1st field walking.

Bad news...Bad news...We've lost Paul to the bright lights of UCL, who's unit is based in Brighton. Paul we wish you all the luck in the world for you and your family.

Good news...Good news... He's been replaced by Cat(herine) who joined us on Saturday along with Les who came along to help identify our pot and small finds and to advise us how best to clean everything.

Cat spent most of the afternoon in the warm sunshine (whilst wearing a thick jumper!!!) trying to bag as many washed finds as she could in order to free up the seed trays, used to put the wet, washed finds. We even had to go out and buy some more. We eventually got through the test pit finds, field walking 2 finds and most of the field walking 1 finds before we finally called a halt to eager washers.
With one box to go, it was decided to leave this for next weeks session as we simply had no more finds trays left!!!

It was great to see some of the pottery cleaned of all the grime to reveal some lovely sherds of grey ware, shelly and red ware. I love this part of the process. It's almost as good as the DBA, field walking, geo-phys........

Louise 1983's photostream

Louise 1983's photostream on Flickr.