Finds ID day today, and site progress report

To kick of the Festival of Archaeology, which starts today, we're holding a finds ID day:

Found pottery in your garden? Picked up something unusual whilst walking the dog? Bring along your own archaeological finds to our exhibition between 10:00 and 16:00 today, where Worcestershire Archaeology finds specialist Laura Griffin will be on hand to identify them.

On site, we've finished the trowel clean of the site, and photographed the results. We're pleased with the progress - taking the time to do a really thorough initial clean has paid off, as the structures and features are now showing up really clearly.

The next stage is to draw up a scaled 'pre-excavation' plan of the site, before we start to dig into the archaeology. To do this, we need to set up a grid, from which we can then lay out tape measures to accurately plan the features. Each grid peg is labelled with an 'easting' and a 'northing', from which we can plot the location of any of the features and structures on the site.

Setting out the grid

Grids on most archaeological sites are set out electronically and located by GPS, but the ability to set one out the old fashioned way using tape measures, grid pegs and trigonometry is still an invaluable skill for an archaeologist for those occasions when technology lets you down!

Admiring the results!

Drawing the scale plan, with guidance from Worcestershire Archaeology's Tim Cornah

This weekend, we'll be starting to excavate into the deposits that we've exposed and planned. We'll also be cleaning and cataloguing the finds we've recovered so far, which will go on display in our exhibition on the High Street.

Rob Hedge