We’re back! Andy and Katie along with the crack team of volunteers broke ground on for the first time for season 2 of excavations at Little Asby today.

We have another 16 days of excavations ahead of us, with an open day scheduled for the 10^th of September and visits from school groups and historical societies too. This year we are focusing on the potentially Bronze Age, enclosure and the as yet undated longhouse that was later constructed within this feature. Our main aims are to understand the relationship between the longhouse and enclosure, understand a bit more about the construction of the building and hopefully find some evidence to date the structure such as a hearth.

Our enthusiastic team of volunteers, most of whom are back again after last year, with a couple of new faces, managed to fully deturf and start cleaning up two trenches which are placed over strategic locations to find and understand key relationships.

Trench A is located over the spot where the wall of the longhouse meets the enclosure wall in order to understand how this has been constructed, and this trench has already produced a find on day 1! A piece of glazed pottery found in the topsoil, hopefully a sign of what’s to come.

Trench B is located over the location that would be the most likely in the inner wall of the longhouse to contain an entrance, no finds from this one yet!

Depending on what we discover in these initial trenches will inform the excavations going forward but already it looks like we have a fascinating season of excavations to come. We look forward to seeing all you familiar faces and new members of the team too, everyone keep your fingers crossed for good weather, and see you soon.