More Discoveries at Aspull

Our Ring Ditch project at Aspull is still producing surprises. Last month it was the remains of a potential cist burial (seen last week by senior archaeologist from GMAAS, Ben Dyson who gave his advice on how to continue with its excavation). This month more burials have turned up in Trench 3a, on the northeast side where we extended it in that direction. These burials are in the form of sandy pits containing cremated bone and charcoal. What is intriguing is that we know that they originate from different periods as some are above the burnt layer, cutting through into the stony layer, and others are below it, cutting into the underlying soft sandy clay. Carbon dating of the bone fragments will hopefully reveal the actual time span of the barrow's construction.

On the southwest side of Trench 3a, we have been investigating a patch of the stony layer, seemingly isolated from the rest of the stony layer which covers the central area of the mound. There was a thought that this could be a cairn in its own right. Extending the trench in the northwest direction initially suggested the patch was not isolated. However as we investigated, what seemed to be a small stake hole, the stony layer became much deeper than the usual 10-15cm thick band. This suggests the cairn theory could be right all along.

Over the last month we have been getting help from our friends from Cheshire, the Border Heritage and Archaeology Group. They have been looking at the strange feature in our original Trench 3, discovered in our first year of digging. It appeared to be another ditch lying on the outside of the main ditch, but filled with loose stone rubble instead of the usual sandy clay we find in the main ditch. The outer edge was also different, being an almost vertically straight wall of bedrock. This ditch looks manmade but, if so, what was its purpose? It is also difficult to imagine how the vertical edge could have been cut so precisely. There is an opinion therefore that this is a natural formation (its creation process however has yet to be explained). The Border Group were tasked with seeing if they could shed some light on the question. They cleared out the ditch finding the solid bedrock base and extended the trench, chasing the vertical straight edge on the northeast side. So far though, the origin of this oddity is still mystifying us.

We do however know more about the very first feature we found on the central mound i.e. our first cremation urn. We haven't looked at this since it was first discovered last year, as we were waiting for an expert opinion on how to deal with it. Although well protected with plastic sheeting, moisture has allowed moss to build up on its surface. It was decided to clean this off before Ben's visit last week. In doing so, soil fell away from the side of the vessel where we had previously cut down to check how deep it went. We thought we had seen its depth to be quite shallow therefore concluded that we had the remains of an upturned urn, the main body having been ploughed away. The removal of the soil however was now showing the vessel going deeper into the ground and tapering inwards. This has revealed the pot is the right way up and we have an almost full container. This is great news as, in Ben's opinion, we will be able to remove the vessel intact. As always more details on our blog site here.
 
 

Next Meeting

Wednesday 2nd October - at the Real Crafty on Upper Dicconson Street starting at 7.30pm as usual. This month our very own Ashley Brogan will be giving us a talk on the Mesolithic period in the Pennines and the effects of climate change (which is the subject of her PhD project). She will also be talking about her recent work on Merseyside (as Brogan Archaeology) at the well-established Mesolithic site of Lunt Meadow. She'll be bringing in the tools from the site for us to see and handle. Sounds great - hope to see you there - BA.