Fieldwalking Day 2 - A Discovery!

On the following Saturday the weather was not so kind to us.  In fact, conditions in the afternoon were pretty atrocious with rain, wind – even hail at one point.  Our fingers got so numb and the pens so damp we could barely label up the finds bags.  

We were getting close to finishing the day and feeling somewhat demoralised when a shout went up from a group walking the far edge of the field. 

They were calling for Howard.  I relayed the message and carried on walking my section.  I glanced up once and remarked to the other people in my group, ‘Well, they’re not jumping up and down – it can’t be that good.’  The next time I glanced over, someone was jumping up and down.

I arrived at the group and they split apart to reveal something lying on the surface of the soil.  Unmistakable even to a novice like me – a flint axe head.  I flung an arm around Nat, splattering his coat with mud and congratulated him on his discovery. 

Unable to resist any more, I picked the axe up as more excited voices joined us.  Someone turned to Howard and asked the question ‘How old do you think it is?’  ‘Could be up to 10,000 years old’, he replied. 

There was a moment of silence as we gazed at the object sitting in my hand.  Faceted, carefully worked for a purpose.  An invisible thread connecting one human being to another, compressing time. 

I passed it on and looked around.  We were all grinning.  

Eventually we turned to leave, still smiling, still exclaiming, cold, damp and discomfort forgotten.  Nat turned to me.   ‘Archaeology is cool’, he said.  Couldn’t agree more.

Fieldwalking Day 1

Our first fieldwalking session took place on Saturday 20^th April under a cloudless sky on a beautiful Spring day.

In the morning Barbara Butler and the team brought along a group from the Colchester Young Archaeologists.  Following a briefing by Howard Brooks from Colchester Archaeological Trust, they set out to walk across the field scanning the ground as they went.

Archaeological fieldwalking ‘does what it says on the tin.’  The piece of ground under investigation is measured off into sections and you walk each section keeping your eyes peeled for anything man-made or worked by human hand.  You pick up anything you find and put it in a bag labeled with the section number ready for later washing and inspection. It’s good practice to try and keep to a certain amount of time for each section so that you end up with a uniform sample.  It sounds simple because it is!  But it’s surprising what you can find just sitting on the surface of the soil.  

There was a lot of discussion as we tried to identify worked flints but we had plenty of help from Hilary, Emma, Kate, Amy and Barbara who are the enthusiastic leaders of Colchester Young Archaeologists.  

The 10 young people who came along were interested in the project and keen to find artefacts.  I really think they have an advantage over adults when it comes to fieldwalking - they've got sharp eyesight and being closer to the ground they're much more likely to spot things!  They certainly seemed to be finding flints and also fossils - not what we were looking for but interesting none the less.  

Some things we put in our bags were definitely maybes, some we weren't sure about at all but included 'just in case'.  We'll be able to see our discoveries at the finds washing session at WCEC on Saturday May 4th 2.00 - 4.00pm.  Join us there!

Thanks to YAC members, Barbara Butler and the team of helpers, also to Howard Brooks from CAT for organising us so well, and not forgetting the people who joined us for the afternoon session to carry on the search for finds.