Day Six - with archaeology!

At the end of the first week of digging at Oystermouth Castle, we’re very pleased with how much we’ve achieved, and we’ve made a lot of progress. All three trenches have been opened up and the turf removed, revealing the uppermost archaeological deposits. Following the de-turfing, the trenches were cleaned, using trowels to clearly define the various different features.

In Trench 1 (on the west side of the main entrance to the castle, supervised by Sven), this cleaning revealed a substantial wall running east-west and constructed of large dressed stone blocks, which lines up with a similar length of walling which is visible on the opposite side of the entrance. In front of this walling (to the south, on the downhill side) is what appears to be the fill of the defensive ditch which originally enclosed the castle, and which was detected by a geophysical survey carried out on the site in 2006. The south end of this trench appears to be mainly occupied by a large spread of rubble and debris, consisting mainly of large stones, which may have been cleared from the interior of the castle during the works carried out during the mid-nineteenth century.

To the south, in Trench 2, which runs from east to west and is being supervised by Dr Eddie Owens of Swansea University, this rubble spread continues, forming two separate areas of debris. In patches of this trench, the limestone bedrock has been exposed, immediately underneath the turf.

This is also the case in Trench 3, (which is being supervised by me) which runs parallel with Trench 2, just to the southeast, where a large area of the bedrock sat immediately underneath the turf and topsoil. There are also archaeological features in this trench, however, including the possible foundations of a wall running from north-south in the east end of the trench, which showed up on the earlier geophysical survey, and which is also visible on some early photographs of the top of the knoll on which the castle sits. It is thought that this may have been a continuation of a wall on the same alignment, which still stands but is currently obscured by an area of shrubbery in front of the castle entrance. This wall may also be related to an area of masonry in a patch of shrubbery further down the hill. There is potentially a second wall running north-south through the west end of the trench, but this needs further investigation.

After all of these features had been revealed, they were then recorded, through photography, scaled plan drawings, and detailed written descriptions of the deposits and features, including interpretations of what they may have been. Features drawn in the plans of the trenches were given heights above sea-level by transferring the altitude from a known height (a benchmark located on the edge of a local church) to the trenches, which took up most of the day for the different groups learning how to use the equipment.

Today we have had 5 volunteers excavating in Trench 1 under the supervision of Edith, while Sven takes a well earned break to do a little wind-surfing, and 5 volunteers in Trench 3 under my supervision. Both sets of volunteers have been working hard through the blustery showers to remove the rubble deposits obscuring the deeper archaeology.
Next week, the archaeological features will be further investigated; keep checking the blog to keep up to date with all the new developments!

Ellie, Project Archaeologist, GGAT