Out and About Spring 2021

Out&About feature

How can he tell? “Iron Age and Medieval items are more sophisticated than Bronze Age. For want of a better word Bronze Age is a bit grotty, pieces often look like a Hob Nob (biscuit), thick and clunky. Iron Age and Medieval pieces are smoother and show more craftmanship.” Mike Murray is working along a ditch and when he finds bits of pottery he bags them up and leaves them under a tag. Mike is from Connecticut but lives in England: “I prefer the density and diversity of finds over here. There is more of an industry. I don’t think I’ve ever worked on a dig in the States.” Nearby, Sophie Peng, who graduated in archaeology two years ago is working on smaller patches where postholes mark a boundary area. “You do miss things,” she says. “But you get your eye in and just get a feel for when you’re spotting a piece of rock or a fragment of pottery.” One of the surprising finds at the site was a flagon next to some bones. Andy explained: “This was clearly a burial site, which is unusual within a domestic settlement. The bones were not well preserved because the soil is too acidic, but the flagon is in good shape and, when we have finished the dig, we will analyse them and see if we can work out what age they were from. The flagon is in the Roman style, which is why we think the bones are from that era too, but everything still needs to be properly analysed.” Each piece is washed and left to air

Sophie and Mike sift over the ground looking for evidence of earlier settlements

A piece of pottery thought to be Iron Age or Medieval

dry and the bones will be looked at by an osteologist to see what can be found out. “We don’t know what we will be able to get from the bones – we try to determine the sex and time period, but this skeleton really isn’t in good condition.” The team have been working at the site since September 2020 and finished this spring. “Usually we would have had an open day over a weekend when the public could come in and see what we are doing and learn a bit more about the dwellings that were here thousands of years ago, but unfortunately Covid put paid to that.” Because of the interest from members of the public the team put up posters with QR codes along the boundary fence, which connected to the TVAS website and information about the dig

What happens to all the items when they have finished? “The finds belong to the landowner Rivar Homes, but once everything has been written up and catalogued they would normally give permission for everything to be deposited with West Berkshire Museum.”

The dark circles on the left show that there was some disruption to the ground and once the area has been dug the entranceway is clear to see To find out more about the Greenham dig and the work of the TVAS visit www.tvas.org.uk

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O&A SPRING 2021