We recently helped our archaeology consultancy partners, Wessex Archaeology, on excavations in Wiltshire and Somerset.
Wessex Archaeology is one of the UK’s leading heritage practices, and an education charity, alongside whom we often work on projects. Ecology and archaeology are two disciplines that are frequently both involved at the very early stages of a projected development.
In order to further improve our experience and understanding of archaeology we took the opportunity to assist Wessex Archaeology on some excavations that they were working on.
In order for our ecologists to be able to offer any real help, they spent two days being trained; the first day was spent in the classroom looking at basic techniques – how to fill in the recording forms (very detailed with lots of cross-referencing) and looking at layering and how to interpret the stratigraphy of a dig. The second day was spent on site putting the theory into practice, under the close supervision of the Wessex team.
After that they were deployed to sites just outside of Salisbury called Bishopdown, and to Yeovil, to help our partners complete these projects. They excavated features, recorded any finds, drew the interventions and took appropriate photographs to record the work. One of the ecologists found some horn from an aurochs, a type of prehistoric cattle, as well as discovering plenty of mud!
