tirsdag 24. juni 2014

Day 2 of excavation: 24 June 2014

Yesterday I thought that excavating this site would be a dream. I forgot about the Norwegian gnats and midges which ate us all alive, despite the mosquito nets we wore over our faces!
Despite being bitten to death, nothing could defeat our enthusiasm for excavation, as every scrape of the trowel yielded half a dozen items for the finds tray, We found things faster than they could be washed and bagged. Today we focused on one area which we divided into quadrants A-D, and started on areas A and B. While B seemed to contain an old bed, perhaps from the camp, A was full of butchered animal bones, food tins, glass bottles and pottery. All of these items seemed to huddle into mini-clusters, suggested that each cluster was the result of a smaller rubbish bin. In one small area I found a comb, fragments of mirror and a medicine bottle, perhaps waste from the bathroom or medical area.
We found some great items today: some aluminium food tins that had been recycled and turned into food bowls. One had little handles attached and another had a prisoner number and initials added. This was probably the star find - it was glorious to find this example of trench art.
We also found a spoon, fork and knife, perhaps part of the camp equipment for prisoners (but not the knife); a coin, a forced labourer button-stud from a uniform, and a padlock - perhaps the original one from the camp gates!
Today's image shows just a small fraction of today's finds. I think that our finds area for washing and drying items will be full within the first 36 hours of the dig!
(Blog entry written by Gilly Carr)


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