Owston Ferry Landscape Archaeology – Field walking week 2
On the morning of the 3rd of July, we commenced the next phase of free archaeological workshops at Owston Ferry in the Isle of Axholme. Despite the heat our volunteers were in good spirits as Jonathan Smith, one of our project officers, and Denise Buckley, our finds supervisor, briefed them on how to conduct a field walking exercise. Our volunteers walked across in the field in rows, flagging up any finds they spotted, allowing them to be logged into our GPS system. Each find was given a unique number, which was matched to the location recorded in the GPS system. The result is that we now have a complete map of the field showing where the concentrations of finds may be. It is these areas of concentration that merit further investigation.
Once we had sweated it out, it was time to retreat to the coolness of Owston Ferry Coronation Hall to wash the dirt off of the finds, and work out what is was that we had found. The water revealed decorated pottery, flint tools, glass and one mystery artefact that we are yet to work out. Our most enthusiastic volunteers even brought in some sheep teeth they had found to clean up!
The finds washing workshop has proved to be the most popular so far – being our first course to be fully booked. So if you want to get involved in the upcoming topographic workshops next week, book your place soon!
This work is being funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund for the Isle of Axholme and Hatfield Chase Project, if you want to book onto any of the FREE workshops, click here!