Muddy Archaeologist
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DIGGING DIARY ARCHIVE Here you can catch up on past Digging Diary News.
December 2010
MERRY CHRISTMAS and A HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE! Dear All,
First of all, may we all wish you a Very Happy Christmas and all the best for 2011.
Fieldwork has now closed for the festive season
and we'll be back in action on Tuesday 11th January (provided the weather
obliges). But we end 2010 having had an amazing year. Even though the weather hasn't always been kind this year, archaeology galore has been unearthed: we have discovered that medieval iron workers reused an Iron Age roundhouse as a workshop, and that, only metres away, amazing Iron Age bowl furnaces have survived, just under the turf. The area nearby produced a mind-boggling sequence of stony features all crammed into one multi-phased space (including prehistoric slag, furnace features, cobbled floor, paved floor, heaths ... etc etc). And that's just some of the 'major' excavations ... This really was a packed and busy site, full of industry and activity and there is plenty more for us to find next year ... 
With Kevin Cale's support, we've enjoyed some
wonderful Feature Digs, including excavations of a set of rare triple
furnaces and another bloomery furnace and it's always a joy to welcome friends
old and new at these digs.
And friends old and new have shared their
expert knowledge with us again this year and to them we give our grateful
thanks and we look forward to continuing to work with you.
It has been another full year and we've been
delighted to give guided walks of the site and illustrated talks to various
societies, including Ilkley's Olicana society, Harrogate's 3D
Community Archaeology group and the Harrogate Archaeology Society. We've
taken part in the British Festival of Archaeology and presented news of our
project at Reeth for the Northern Mines Research Society and at the AONB's
Heritage Day, as well as publishing our finds in the YAS papers and the NMRS conference
proceedings (see www.iron-age.org
'publications' to read them). We've also made our annual appearance
at the Nidderdale Show. Our thanks to everyone who has made us so
welcome.
We are always very happy to provide a display or
to give an illustrated talk about our Project and our exciting findings in
Nidderdale - just contact me to set a date.
New members are always welcome. Just contact
us to check venue and times.
This site never ceases to surprise and amaze us:
who knows what we'll find next year ...
All the very best,
Gil
September / October 2010
Dear All,
The summer has been a soggy one for
excavating but, as we start a new autumn season of digging, we have an
exciting time ahead of us, full of plenty of iron-working discoveries to
be unraveled - both truly ancient and medieval.
 We
began this season by revisiting that wonderful trench
containing ancient bowl furnaces. It's a complicated set of
features, with tumbled stones and features overlaying these subtler and
smaller - and older - very special discoveries. When the first one
came to light we thought we were dreaming: a neat, stone-lined, once
clay-covered bowl in the old ground, complete with roasted residue
wrapped around the (long-vanished) bellows' air hole. Then
there was another ... and another ...
... and the scene now continues as we extend
into the fascinating landscape immediately around it. This
multi-phased archaeology provides a rich challenge, with iron age slag
and medieval features, one on another, all lurking beneath a once innocent-looking
level patch of grass. Our Iron Age settlement was certainly a
place full of industry and life, both 2,000 years ago and again
just a few hundred years ago. We're just beginning to uncover
it - keep watching this space to read about our discoveries as we find
them.
 Come
and See Us
We frequently set up displays at heritage
days and special events - do come along and see what we've found and have
a chat. Our next display will be at Ripon Library between 2-4.30pm
as part of their Local & Family History afternoon on Thursday
2nd December 2010. We look forward to seeing you.
Talks
etc
We've spent some of the summer talking with
and taking part in various heritage days and archaeology conferences -
our thanks to the Historic Metallurgy Society (HMS) for their wonderful
conference and the reconstruction fest of iron furnaces: much learned
and good questions to follow up ... And also to the Northern Mines
Research Society for inviting us to talk and for your hospitality.
Not forgetting the AONB and their Nidderdale Heritage Day that brought
us all together. Good contacts made, old friends met again and
steps taken for future activities and research ...Thank you to all of
you.
And please remember that we are always very
happy to give illustrated talks about our Project and our exciting
findings in Nidderdale. Do contact us if you would like to arrange a
talk.
New members are always welcome. Just
contact us to check venue and times.
Gill July 2010
Dear All, We have some fantastic discoveries to report since our last newsletter - but, more of that anon.
First, an invitation to everyone. Monday 12th & Tuesday 13th July are our next Big Dig dates As on previous 'Big Digs' we are delighted to have Kevin Cale guiding and steering us through a special two-day dig. High on a lovely, warm, south-facing, sheltered from the wind, slope (always a plus on our site!), there is a series of platforms that contains one of the first furnaces discovered on our site. It's never been opened up though - mainly because it has a series of intriguing working platforms, above and below it, and we need plenty of manpower to do justice to this feature. This feature is very different from other furnaces we've seen and excavated - it should tell us lots about how folk worked up here and it will be an important chapter in the ever-unfolding story. Please do come along - just bring your good selves, your lunch and plenty of liquids, and appropriate footwear/layers/waterproofs/suncream. We'll provide the rest - trowels, spades ... and including a sun shelter if necessary (here's hoping!). Do come and join us - contact me at gill@iron-age.org for times and venue - we'll be delighted to see you!
High on the summit of our hill,
right in the centre of the Iron Age settlement, something rather
wonderful has been found.
Also in July ... please join us for a taster or two what life was like when these ancient furnaces were being used on this site ...
Prehistoric Dacre - A
Guided Walk. This
will be on Tuesday 20th July
10am-1pm. It's free but booking is essential - as are good boots and
waterproofs or suncream. We have evidence of possible Neolithic
life, very real Bronze Age remains and a wealth of Iron Age settlement
features (including the new discoveries ...). Come and see what life
was like on your doorstep just two thousand years ago.
Tuesday 27th July:
Prehistoric Dacre - A presentation
at the Schoolroom, Dacre Top. 7-9pm. A virtual tour (mud and
rain free as well as cost free!) with refreshments too. Do come
and discover more about the prehistoric settlement that's
on your doorstep.
Contact me on gill@iron-age.org to book your place at either of these events. New members are always welcome. We are always happy to receive invitations to give talks and presentations.
Thank you.
We close with a view of one of our latest regulars - two oyster catchers have rather superbly supervised the last few weeks of digging ... Gill 
June 2010 Dear All,
But onto the archaeology, which has been substantial and fascinating.
AND ONWARDS, to our future events:
Tuesday 27th July: Prehistoric Dacre - A presentation at the Schoolroom, Dacre Top. A virtual tour (mud and rain free!) with refreshments too. Do come and discover more about the prehistoric settlement that's on your doorstep. All events are free, thanks to our Heritage Lottery Fund grant, and new members are always welcome. We are always happy to receive invitations to give talks and presentations. Our earlier computer glitch means that we have had to 'rebuild' our newsletter mailout list so I invite you, if you know of anyone who is wondering where their copy is, please let me know on gill@iron-age.org. Likewise, if you have received this newsletter in error, then just let me know on the same address. Gill March 2010
Dear All,
Well, it's been quite a winter. Quite a
cold and difficult winter for archaeology. And yet that hasn't
prevented us from tramping around our site and stretching our knowledge of
other neighbouring sites - we now can confirm that prehistoric settlement
certainly continued along the ridge, (as did activity from every age between
then and now, it seems).
The half term Family Fun day's Big Dig
for Little Kids went very successfully - we unearthed a variety of
goodies and did some very real metal detectoring and scraping with trowels:
we have some excellent young archaeologists with a natural talent in
our midst.
The last few weeks have seen us digging again
and the news is very exciting. A closer look at the DIAS (Dacre Iron
Age Smithy) Roundhouse has begun to reveal more evidence of Iron
Age activity: fresh red, solid slag and a beautiful hand grinder stone (see
pics). Plus the first real proof that medieval iron workers later used
the same site and, just last week, a large, strange, flat-bottomed, curved
and marked broken stone (see pic - suggestions welcome!) and the discovery
that the curving roundhouse rubble wall is laid on top of a smarter piece
of walling (see pic): much more work to be done here - but let's hope
that the hints of Spring warmth continue while we're investigating this
great feature.
 The
Project Events Diary has already been active this year: it has been
wonderful to share our findings with the Darley Women's Forum and the
Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society (in Middlesbrough) as well as
(as you may have seen in the local paper) having a display in Northallerton
Town Hall at the County Records Office open day on 13th March and meeting so
many great folk there.
ur next events are:
Feature Dig:
Monday 10th May & Tuesday 11th May, 10am onwards.
All are invited to help us uncover a major feature on the site (probably the
Triple Furnace).
Prehistoric Dacre
- A Guided Walk, will be given on Tuesday
20th July 10am-1pm. Booking essential.
Tuesday 27th July:
Prehistoric Dacre - A presentation
at the Schoolroom, Dacre
Top. With refreshments. Come and have a virtual tour of the
prehistoric world that's on your doorstep.
All events are free, thanks to our Heritage
Lottery Fund grant and new members are welcome any time, whether you wish to
come along and dig with us on Tuesdays on a regular or occcasional basis, or
to simply keep in touch. We are always happy to receive invitations to
give talks and presentations.
This newsletter is being sent to many new folk
this time - welcome, and we hope you enjoy it.
Gill
APOLOGIES - TECHNICAL PROBLEMS HAVE BRIEFLY BURIED MANY OF THESE EARLIER ARCHIVES. BUT THEY WILL BE UNEARTHED AGAIN SOON ...
Episode 7 - September 2008
The last few weeks have been busy with the
Nidderdale Show, showing new folk around the site and generally preparing
for our Digging Training Days in October. But that hasn't stopped us
from taking a peek under the turf ...
Despite unencouraging weather we managed to open up more of our "flagged floor" on the top field today - it surprised us by stopping abruptly about a metre beyond the posthole (and 120cm behind the western mini hearth). There was a step down from a huge flagstone onto smaller jumbled stones, amongst which were a couple of seriously reddened stones with a some of small bits of charcoal on it (well spotted, Becky!) - so could this be a hint of a hearth? - and there was also a magnetic slag-like piece in a crevice between other stones.
The floor has a layer of sandy silt over it,
making a buffer before our customary sooty layer (which is thought to be
medieval), so we are looking at an earlier site, possibly (and in fact
probably) Iron Age. But there is much more work to be done
before anything more definite can be said of this tantalizing and
fascinating feature - and the weather conspired to prevent extensive work
today. But there's always another day and we shall indeed
explore further at a later date ...
Tuesdays October
14th & 28th
Our two training days, led by professional
archaeologist, Kevin Cale: come and learn how to excavate, record, sketch,
photograph etc on a test pit on our site. Meet at 10am in the lay-by
beside the United Reformed Church in Dacre Top. As ever, do
remember your lunch, waterproofs, stout footwear and, since our
"summer" is now drawing to a close, warm layers of
clothes.
Saturday 18th
October
HISTORICALEVENT
at Ripley Town Hall, Ripley, Harrogate 10am - 4.30pm
Autumn 2008 marks 20 years of Kevin’s business in the archaeological world. To celebrate this milestone, this event will give all the community archaeology groups the opportunity to meet, network and share their research with the public - and, of course, our Iron Age (Nidderdale) Project will have a display there too. Refreshments will be available and money donated for these will be given to CARET (Community Archaeology Roving Excavation Team) which is non-funded. May we stress that the site is on private property with no public right of way - access must be accompanied by a group leader at all times.
If you would like more information on our
Project, please take a look at our website, www.iron-age.org.
All the very best,
Gill Episode 6 - September 2008
Dear All,
Just to remind you all that we will be having a
stand in the Heritage Marquee at the Nidderdale
Show in Pateley Bridge on Monday
(22nd September). Do come along and meet us for a
chat, and find out more about the Project.
And not forgetting our two special Excavation
Training days, Tuesdays 14th & 28th
October, on the site in Dacre - with an indoors bail-out
option of Dacre Schoolroom in case inclement weather really does get the
better of us. Professional archaeologist, Kevin Cale,
will lead us through a dig - as well as the digging, there's the surveying,
sketching, note-taking, photographing ... so there's something for everyone.
We'll provide the kit, but do feel free to bring your own trowel and knees
pads if you have them, as well as the essential stout footwear and
waterproofs. Plus lunch, of course.
Meet at 10am at the layby beside the United
Reformed Church on Dacre Top (opposite the Schoolroom where the Launch was).
We look forward to seeing you there - and who
knows what we might find?
Thanks to everyone who joined us for our Introductory
Walk around the Dacre Site on 2nd September. The weather was most kind
to us, with the rain holding off until the last five minutes. As ever,
there was far more to see than we had time for, but we explored a
range of features from every age and everyone expressed
amazement at just what can be hiding in what you thought were
just empty fields ...
And finally, don't forget that our website,
www.iron-age.org is constantly being updated - do take a
look from time to time.
Episode 5 - September 2008 Dear All. Thank you to everyone who came to our Official Launch. It was good to see you all, and we hope you enjoyed the talks and meeting together. We are now ready to forge ahead with plans for the Autumn. In addition to the regular explorations of the site, here are a few special dates for your diary - all are welcome:
Tuesday 2nd September:
Introductory Walk around the Site. Please contact me if you want to join
us.
Stout shoes, waterproofs and lunch to munch on the site top are all you
require.
Please note that, due to the fast fading
evening light, the planned Introduction to Sketch Surveying
will now take place at a later date during daytime hours. We shall let
you know when we have a date for this.
Tuesday 14th
& 28th October:
Two special days of Excavation Training on site. Get to grips with the
art of excavating under Kevin
Time prevented no more than a corner being
revealed, but we shall keep you informed as we learn more about this
fascinating feature.
As ever, may we remind you all that the
site is on an exposed hillside and waterproofs/suncream and stout footwear are
definitely required.
May we stress that the site is on private property with no public right of way - access must be accompanied by a group leader at all times.
If you would like more information on our
Project, please take a look at our website, www.iron-age.org.
Episode 4
WELCOME!
Dear All, Welcome to the Newsletter for the Iron-Age (Nidderdale) Project. This new community archaeology group is exploring and unearthing previously undiscovererd historic iron smelting and smithing in and around the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in North Yorkshire - and this is our first Newsletter which has been sent to you since you have either expressed an interest in the Project or a Project member thought you might be interested. 
Funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, it is open to
all and we begin with two special evening events:
Tuesday 26th August 2008 - Project launch
-
with talk and display by Project members and an introduction to
digging by professional archaeologist, Kevin Cale. 7pm start at the
Methodist Schoolroom in Dacre Top.
Tuesday 2nd September 2008 - Introduction
to Sketch Surveying
on site in Dacre. No experience or
talent required - it's an exercise that helps us all to get our eyes tuned to
the subtleties of the features. 7pm start. Please contact us to arrange
where to meet up.
You are very welcome to join us on our site in
Dacre - we meet every Tuesday at 10am. Just reply to this email and we
shall let you know exactly where to meet us: please note that the site is
on an exposed hillside and waterproofs/suncream and stout footwear are
definitely required. May we stress that the site is on private property
with no public right of way - access must be accompanied by a group leader at
all times.
Whether you become a regular member of the
Project, digging on our fascinating site (no experience necessary - training
will be given!), taking part regularly or occasionally in our
regular fieldwork Tuesdays or perhaps for the scheduled excavations only, or
even if you cannot join us on our site, you can follow this, our story of
exploration and discovery, in a "virtual" way through these short
newsletters, which will be sent out weekly. It will also let you
know of forthcoming events and excavations.
We hope you enjoy this opportunity to share our findings with you. If
you know of anyone else who would like to keep up to date with our
discoveries through these newsletters, please do let us know by replying to
this email.
If you would like more information on our Project,
please take a look at our website, www.iron-age.org.
All the very best,
Gillian Hovell
Secretary, Iron-Age (Nidderdale) Project
Episode 4 Lottery Heritage Fund award Grant! We are now delighted to announce that the Lottery Heritage Fund have awarded a grant of £40,000 to our new Iron-Age (Nidderdale) Project - Launched on 26th August 2008, we are looking forward to 4 years of exploring and discovering historic remains of iron smelting in this glorious countryside. Watch this space to find out more - and to learn how you can join in as we discover more about the iron workings in Nidderdale and our very special Iron Age smithy site.
Episode 3 It's an exciting time - we've had the results of Bradford University's geophysics exercise on our site and now we can reveal what they found ...
The students investigated a very thrilling, area in a corner of one of the fields. At 20m x 80m it was relatively small compared with our whole site, but it covered our known potential Iron Age smithy site and a few lumps and bumps that we haven't dug at all yet. Here is just one set of their results:
Now, this may not look desperately exciting, but that large red and blue cluster is spot on, right on the site of our iron furnace and smithing site. There won't be anything to find except the debris of slag and metal filings but when we get a chance to investigate it really carefully it should tell us so much about the work that went on in our field 2,000 years ago - it's direct evidence of someone working away at his trade and it's a fantastic feeling when you dig down onto the same surface they were standing on to do that work! You'll notice there's a smaller blob at the right hand side of the area. Our preliminary excavations to take a peek at this spot show a probable furnace and plenty of roast ore and reddened soil. Something very hot was going on here - again probably 2,000 years ago, or maybe 800 years ago when the Cistercian monks owned the land and had furnaces all over the field. One day, we may find out which it was! Watch this space ...
Episode 2 Time to see a little of what we've been digging up on our windswept site ... A Load of Old Left-overs Some of the oldest archaeology we have found can look most uninspiring. But a knobbly, earth-encrusted lump of heavy stone, like the one in our picture, tells us that our empty fields were once buzzing with a very special noisy and smelly activity.
It is slag, and slag is the left-over from smelting, ie. from the process in which iron was extracted from the natural iron-bearing stone. This particular piece was actually once the molten lump of rock which settled at the bottom of a furnace, while the iron formed into a "bloom" (a spongy mass) above it.
Iron has, obviously, been smelted since the beginning of the Iron Age in c.600 BC, but the techniques became more and more efficient over the centuries, so the early iron slag still contained plenty of heavy metal in it while later, say medieval, slag, contained less iron and was therefore lighter. The lump in the photo above was very heavy and dense and therefore probably belongs to the Iron Age. Together with hollows in the ground which are all that remain of the furnaces, lumps such as this are proof positive that people were working metal on our site an amazing 2,000 years ago.
Ancient slag can be found in many different shapes, often appearing almost volcanic in its flowing, once-molten form, like this piece from a nearby Iron Age hut area.
So, as every archaeologist knows, an empty field isn't always what it first seems ...
In his Natural History, Pliny the Elder, the Roman encyclopedic writer of the 1st Century AD, gives us a clue to the way the Romans eagerly used this new wonder material called iron .... "Iron is the best and worst of life’s materials. With iron we plough the ground, plant trees, trim other trees that support our vines and compel the vines to put out new shoots by cutting out dead wood every year. With it we build houses, quarry rocks and achieve many other useful tasks. We also use iron for wars and bloodshed and plunder. We use it not only at close quarters, but as winged missiles. Once iron projectiles were hurled by the arm, but now they are actually equipped with wings! This I consider to be the most criminal misuse of man’s genius: to make it possible for death to reach human beings more quickly, we have taught iron how to fly and have given it wings!"
Episode One - Elemental Basics
Digging is an outdoor pursuit. This is one of its great joys.
However, it brings with it a variety of challenges for which every digger should be prepared ...
Introduction Read on to find out what a day's digging can include. Discover the joys and the hardships, the successes and the disappointments, the adventures and misadventures of digging for history beneath your feet. Ours is a story of discovery. Sometimes.
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Date this site was last edited: 23 January 2011 |
Latest Discoveries:
Big news of Little Furnaces
of it made
obvious sense until we looked deeper - and there, tucked beneath the
later layer, we
And thank you to those who have already
donated for my charity trek
through the archaeology-strewn stony Jordanian desert to Petra next March.
I'm already 1/6th of the way to raising £2,900 (by
Dec 2010) for Classic FM's Music Makers who provide
live music therapy and education projects across Britain -
but still
a long way to go, so all donations gratefully received. Discover more and
please
dig deep and donate on 
Welcome to our latest newsletter. Our
apologies for the delay - the combined forces of a
certain volcano and
a major computer failure caused a brief hiccup ...
The DIAS (Dacre Iron Age Smithy) has been
further explored, revealing a packed and complex feature. The
Iron-Age roundhouse has been re-used in medieval times as a workshop,
complete with iron roasting hearth. There is plenty more to be
done here!
But May began with a two-day Big Dig that re-visited
the Triple Furnaces feature. We'd been here before, last autumn,
under professional archaeologist Kev Cale's supervision and we were
delighted to have Kev back with us as we reopened the trench. The
three original grassy hollows are now three large structures - who'd have
thought all that was under the grass. The surprise has been that each
of the three features are distinctly different from each other. One
had a fantastic burnt crisp base within it, the middle one had a different
feel entirely being untouched by any real signs of burning. The third
seemed to have had more than one life? Some intriguing shale and even
some possible baked clay lingered within it and a 'false base' of
stones hid a thick blackened coating above a wonderful orange-red base
layer. A wonderful white crumbly edging crept up this base up the
south side of the furnace.
Finds were few and fragmentary - bits of coal
(we were remarkably near the coal mines), scraps of charcoal, and what's
probably clay lining. But a real discovery was that all three
features had been been built with their bases deliberately dug into the
hillside. Our photos here on the right are just one of each of the
furnaces during the digs. As ever, there is more work to be done in
the future - we shall return!
Prehistoric Dacre - A
Guided Walk. This
will be on Tuesday 20th July
10am-1pm. Booking essential - as are good boots and waterproofs or
suncream. We have evidence of possible Neolithic life, very real
Bronze Age remains and a wealth of Iron Age settlement features. Come
and see what life was like on your doorstep just two thousand years ago.
Just
a final word if you'll indulge me: I have just committed myself to
a challenging 9-day charity trek
through the archaeology-strewn stony Jordanian desert to Petra next March to
raise a massive £2,900 (!) by Dec 2010 for Classic FM's Music
Makers: they provide live music therapy and education
projects across Britain. My own daughter benefitted from something
similar when she was five years old in Great Ormond Street Hospital and,
believe me, they make a huge difference - changing lives through
the power of music, as they put it. Any donations gratefully
received. Find out more and please dig deep and donate on 
We are excited to report that an early stone
flagged floor was uncovered on the site in the last digging day of this
month. It was next to an Iron Age roundhouse and
alongside previously discovered signs of iron working.
Slag found in the Iron Age smithy area, with £1 coin for
scale. G.Hovell 2006
