diggers, 85 Photos

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Burial (2120) Context (2104) Context (2034) Burial (2106) Ruth & Will sampling deposit (2137) Tomas & Anies at work on their chalk-lined burial The Prescot Street site looking East East end of Zone 4 East along Prescot Street towards the BT Radianz building The construction is well under way in what was our Zone 1 Tiny machines and giant props The North West corner of the old Zone 1 - it's VERY deep! Across Zone 4 facing West Zone 4, looking South West Looking directly West across site Planning Zone 4 Across Zone 4 looking North East Taking samples The far North East end of site Zone 4, facing Prescot Street Zone 4 Far East end of site Far East end of site in Zone 4 of the excavation Gary's goat Gary's lead goat Anies defining the cut of tomb foundation (1839) Anies & Tomasz and tomb burial (1839) Post-medieval drainage feature in Zone 4 Across site looking north west North East corner of Zone 4 Pitland in Zone 4 Looking South West across Zone 4 Zone 4 South East Cremation burial (1051) being excavated by Paula Paula's cremation (1051) ready for its geo-photo Close up of Paula's cremation (1051) Lukasz at work David sampling a possible cremation Site shot west south west Another soak-away. What fun. Context (1095) if you were interested. The site office ?20th Century post medieval walls - part of South Tenter Street The side of my head Inhumation (1083) with the head resting on a tile Inhumation (1083) (1083) Second big quarry pit (1064) Ashley working on (1083) Tom's poorly preserved Roman burial with only long bones present Gary's inhumation waiting to be geo-photographed Votive deposit (1083) with flagon and black burnished platter Liz's inhumation (1006) Lukasz's inhumation (1032) with pot at feet David's cremation (1087) see journal for further details Paula's cremation (1051) David's cremation (1087) Łukasz excavating Roman skeleton (1032) Trench 3 Pits in Trench 2 Trench 2 Trench 3 Trench 3 Trench 3 Trench 3 Trench 3 Trench 1 Trench 1 Trench 2 Trench 1 Trench 1 Trench 1 Trench 2 Trench 2 Trench 2 Trench 2 Basement Trench 1 Roman burials from 2006 evaluation Last remaining building on site - now demolished Last building Prescot Street Site Hut Medieval leather shoe sole and vamp Leather shoe Diggers at work CIMG0425.JPG

The open evenings held on the 15th, 16th and 17th July were a great success, with 95 visitors to the site over the three evenings, which also included a number of residents from the houses on South Tenter Street overlooking the site – some of whom remembered playing on the site when it was a car park in the 1980’s. There was lots of positive feedback from visitors and we think that everyone gained a clear picture of what we are doing here at Prescot Street and why it is so interesting. Huge thanks are due to the wonderful Natalie Cohen, Rob Whytehead and David Bowsher, for their interesting and informative talks, Guy for his expert guided tour, and the Prescot Street staff that stood in for me at late notice and managed the finds handling. As I had been struck down with a kidney infection, I missed two out of the three evenings, so I am going to have organise another open evening in September, in order that I can experience something similar to the National Archaeology Week fun myself. I will confirm final details in August on the Prescot website.

On Saturday 19th July, the Camden Young Archaeologist’s Club came to visit the site and learn about what goes on behind the big white hoardings on a commercial archaeology site. The group enjoyed a site tour by me (obviously not as comprehensive as Guy’s!), handled some of the more exciting finds and especially enjoyed the skulls and found out about stratigraphy – although the big yellow machinery was slightly more distracting for some… Thanks to Sarah Dhanjal and Mike Corbishley for arranging the visit and Johanna and Lowell for helping out. I will post some pictures soon.

Some of the visitors comments from the open evenings are below:

Just wanted to thank you very much for yesterday evening. It was so enlightening and interesting to see archaeology from a professional point of view. I very much enjoyed seeing the site and hope for all the best results from the finds for you and all the team.

Thank you so much for arranging the visit to Prescot Street for us. We all enjoyed it immensely and were very impressed by the GIS system of recording and analysis

I was prepared to be disappointed – but was not at all! Top marks for everything on Prescot Street dig!

Good mix of activities, especially liked seeing archive system (GIS)

Very informative, excellent overview of the East London Roman Cemetery and post-Roman development

Very grateful for a very pleasant, informative and informal event

Having seen some sites in the countryside in Greece and Turkey I was surprised how literally it was a building site.