Day 3 of excavation: Wednesday 25 June 2014

Today work continued in quadrant A of trench one, which continued to reveal more and more objects - more than we can cope with. There is constantly a long line of buckets full of objects (and soil) next to the flotation tank as we find things faster than they can be washed.

Yesterday we found many animal bones, but today we found bottle after bottle, many of which were intact, and some of which still contained their original contents - cod liver oil, so important in Norway in the winter. The camp was a school before and after its use as a camp, so we think that the cod liver oil bottles and aluminium vitamin boxes which have also turned up date from that period.

The rubbish pit in trench one is huge. We're trying to dig down to the grey clay which is at the base of the pit, but we still haven't reached the bottom - the going is too slow with all of the objects that we find. And it doesn't help that smaller pits were dug into the larger rubbish pit, and these were dug into the clay, so even when we reach this layer, we still won't be at the bottom of the rubbish pit.

A number of the pottery pieces that we've found have 'PIF' scratched into the base, which indicates that it is Falstad pottery, made by the prisoners. There are also more food dishes made from recycled food tins, presumably by the prisoners. I love to see these small suggestions of the silent prisoner voice. We've also been finding a number of wine bottles recycled into water glasses, indicating recycling in a time of shortage.

There are two star finds today: a chamber pot and a frame of bars, which we think was attached to the window of the rooms. Interesting finds to indicate the materiality of internment!

(Blog post by Gilly Carr)