It is Day 8 of our excavations and was also our site open day today! We had special guests Adam and Luke dressed up as our longhouse inhabitants and Adam bringing with him an assortment of replica items from the period all made by his own hand. Adam also brought with him a model of our type of longhouse in miniature form which really helped everyone interpret what we had been excavating so far and imagine it in its former turf covered glory.

Another special guest was Jamie Quartermaine who came along to present and talk about last years results to our group of visitors, who then received a full tour of the site by Andy. Jamie also conducted a drone flight over site to get a bird’s eye view of the hard work so far. Whilst all this was going on around them our team diligently carried on working through our open trenches.

Richard and Tim in Trench E cleaned back over the exposed enclosure and crosswall and whilst doing so discovered some small flint debitage from the outside of the structure, hinting at the prehistoric occupation of this site.

In Trench Linda! (D) they finished off excavation of the inner wall of the longhouse revealing that the wall here was built out of the natural bedrock which had then been enhanced and filled with rubble.

After finishing that task they moved back into Trench A where the sections of the wall and interior of the building needed cleaning up ready to draw the sections and take some environmental samples from below the wall. Perry continued his work in Trench B discovering a small post or stakehole cut into the potential location of the doorway which could indicate a structure associated with this area.

And last but not least Lynn and Louise continued with recording sections and excavating the interior and exterior of the north-western corner of the building, they also discovered some small pieces of flint.

A fun and productive day all round!