In September 2022, the Lancaster office of Oxford Archaeology undertook the second season of community archaeological excavation, commissioned by the Westmorland Dales Landscape Partnership, to undertake fieldwork on Little Asby Common. We put together a blog so you can follow our daily updates!
Last year was spent doing a series of trial trenching across various features identified on the common by landscape survey, the surveys revealed that the common is packed with interesting archaeological features, but we had to settle on one site to go to full excavation this summer. The location chosen was a Longhouse structure that appeared to be built against a stone built enclosure that last season’s carbon dates revealed to have been constructed in the Bronze Age. Andy Phelps, assisted by Katie Sanderson, lead a team of local volunteers and community archaeologists in the investigation of this structure with the aim of figuring out its age and construction.
We were visited on our open day by our own Adam Parsons (pictured right) dressed and carrying reproductions of materials that may have been used by those who once stayed in our longhouse, which really brought our excavation to life!
We would like to thank Hannah Kingsbury for organising this wonderful project and all our brilliant and skilled volunteers. We couldn’t have done it without you!