Shiptonthorpe
Archaeologists don't pack light! Here is the back of Jon's car, ready for our community training dig at Shiptonthorpe.
[To be fair, it looks like this at every dig! :-)]
The Society's first excavation work, since the pandemic, was undertaken between 26th and 29th April 2021 on a strip of land behind the properties in Town Street, Shiptonthorpe. This pretty village is known to have been a former Roman settlement.
Under Covid guide-lines, the site was attended on a rota basis, under the guidance of either Jon Kenny or Karen Adams, with a total of no more than six people assembling together at one time.
A total of six 1 metre square test pits were excavated by hand, to a depth of up to 80 cm, down to the natural gravel.
A possible pit or tree bole, containing a shard of Post-medieval pottery in the fill, was found in one test pit. The remaining test pits produced a small quantity of pottery, brick and tile, clay pipes and iron objects, dating between Post-medieval to modern times.
On the first day we dug a series of test pits in the back of what might possibly be a medieval toft-and-croft.
A big thank you goes out to all our volunteers and to Tony and Sue, the landowners, who kindly gave us permission to dig on their land.