| Entry: | This diary entry covers a couple of days work on site that relate mainly to the excavation of feature 1236.
Initially we were continuing to clean grid 1035/1140 to plan it and came down onto a spread of mud bricks that were very similar to those that we removed to the east of the later wall and given unit number (8710). Like those bricks they were very hard and well preserved and seems the spread seemed to align parallel with the building 40.
The spread of bricks (8760) was therefore removed and we came down on to a foundation of another late building and I wanted to put a slot through it to see how deep it was and to be sure that the construction was similar to that used in building 40. However the foundations were not so deep and when mattocking I struck the femur of a human skeleton (8764).
The skeleton was fully exposed and seems to sit in a cut through the late wall since a clear edge was visible and only a narrow slot had been put through the wall. After planning and lifting the skeleton I decided to continue the slot through the wall a little bit further mainly because it had been half dug and a bit messy. Soon after starting another edge only 10cm from what I thought was the burial cut appeared and initially I thought it was another burial but after extending the slot a bit further no opposite edge could be seen which would have meant that the burial cut was considerable wider than most of the late examples.
It finally dawned on me that the compacted material I was looking at was lining to the original and only grave although it was hard and had been made in a similar manner to the wall foundations it was slightly lighter in colour and when I mattocked a bit further in became clear that it extended round the grave. The lining was exposed and recorded but not removed because of the time and the need to patch up the plans.
After cleaning it seems that the late wall (8793) cuts the upper portion of the burial as the lining survived only to a minimum height where the two features crossed.
Some wood was visible in the construction cut and maybe from the construction of grave lined which appears to have been done in a similar manner to the late walls being a mixture prepared and poured into the cuts to set.
The grave lining also explains why the skeleton is in much better condition that the others we have excavated so far this season. Despite all the effort that had gone into making the lining there was no grave goods unfortunately!!!Entered By: Lisa Yeomans |
