Hi my name is Sven and I’m supervising in Trench 1. The first morning of the excavation was spent setting up the working area. We unloaded 92 security fences, which did not quite take as long as we thought it would, thanks to the diligence of the teams of students and volunteers present that day. They put up with unloading the security fences, the fence footings, and the bags of clips, carrying all of this equipment up the steep hill leading to the castle, setting the fencing up - and all this without complaining (at least not audibly).
The fencing was unloaded by ten, at which point we decided to have a welcome tea break, with tea and kettle arriving just on time accompanied by Rob (who’s in charge of work on site), the tools and the paperwork…
Despite having to cope with uncertainties involved in the start of a dig (or perhaps because of these unexpected challenges), the mood of the whole team was steadily upbeat, and the fencing was all up well before our official lunchtime. As we had to wait for the sheeting anyway, we had an early lunch, eating our sandwiches inside the castle walls.
The afternoon was then spent removing the turf layer over the three trenches that we plan to excavate during this project. Everyone participated eagerly, fighting for the six spades available. However, the spading lot was soon reduced to a handful of enthusiasts, who resiliently provided their teammates with fresh turf at a remarkable pace.
The team from Swansea Metal Detector Club managed to discover a few coins (unfortunately all modern thus far) . We needed special permission from Cadw to use metal detectors on our spoilheaps - without it we would have been liable for fines and having the metal detectors confiscated! We also found the floodlight cable that went through trench 1, while removing turf.
I am sure everyone will sleep well tonight.
Sven Egloff, Assistant Project Officer with GGAT
The fencing was unloaded by ten, at which point we decided to have a welcome tea break, with tea and kettle arriving just on time accompanied by Rob (who’s in charge of work on site), the tools and the paperwork…
Despite having to cope with uncertainties involved in the start of a dig (or perhaps because of these unexpected challenges), the mood of the whole team was steadily upbeat, and the fencing was all up well before our official lunchtime. As we had to wait for the sheeting anyway, we had an early lunch, eating our sandwiches inside the castle walls.
The afternoon was then spent removing the turf layer over the three trenches that we plan to excavate during this project. Everyone participated eagerly, fighting for the six spades available. However, the spading lot was soon reduced to a handful of enthusiasts, who resiliently provided their teammates with fresh turf at a remarkable pace.
The team from Swansea Metal Detector Club managed to discover a few coins (unfortunately all modern thus far) . We needed special permission from Cadw to use metal detectors on our spoilheaps - without it we would have been liable for fines and having the metal detectors confiscated! We also found the floodlight cable that went through trench 1, while removing turf.
I am sure everyone will sleep well tonight.
Sven Egloff, Assistant Project Officer with GGAT
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