This week on site we focused on backfilling Trench 1 and our test pits all by hand, and only a few muscles were pulled in the process, which by archaeological standards is pretty good for backfilling.
Image: Backfilling Trench 1.
We managed to get all of the re-turfing done just in the nick of time as Storm Amy rolled in. Even though we might be finished on site, we’re going to leave our fences up for a week or two so that the turf gets a chance to settle back in, and because it was not safe or practical to remove the fences today due to the storm.
Image: Singing in the Rain?
Many of you might be wondering why not leave the site open over winter instead of heaving the soil out, then in, then out again. There are a few reasons, the main one being the safety and useability of the park. We want to make sure that the park can be enjoyed by everyone over the winter, without big fences, or random holes, causing problems. By backfilling the site and re-establishing the grass, it should (hopefully) look like we were never there. The second reason is archaeological; damage can be done to the site if it is left open to the elements for an extended period of time. When you remove the grass and soil from an area and leave it exposed to wind and rain it becomes unstable, waterlogged or dried out, it can be eroded by the weather, and ultimately any archaeological features in that area will be damaged. This can all be avoided by backfilling, as the layers of soil and grass create a protected and stable environment; sometimes the safest thing for archaeology is to leave it under the ground.
We’ve covered the trench in a layer of water permeable fabric, called Terram membrane, which won’t affect the environment of the park, and will allow the grass to grow normally. This will also show us next year exactly where we got to this year when we restart excavations next summer.
Image: Terram Membrane on top of the level we reached in this year’s excavations across Trench 1.
Backfilling didn’t stop us from making new discoveries this week though. While cleaning back the area we believe was the Late Victorian Path, we made a truly lovely discovery.
Images: The Late Victorian Path featuring hoof prints and cartwheel ruts.
Horsies!
What we can see in these photos are the prints in the mud left behind by horses pulling carts down to the Old Jarrow Village and possibly beyond. This gives us a clear indication of how essential this pathway might have been, and hope that an even older path is underneath. It also might explain a bit about why the south end of the park was so filled with ash and rubbish; if the park was very muddy, it may have been decided to spread ash, grit and slag around to make the path firmer and more usable. We’re hoping to do some fancy analysis with some of the photos we’ve taken to see if we can tell just how many horse-shoe prints are preserved in the path.
And that’s it for our first season at JAM!
We would like to give another massive thank you to everyone who made the last five weeks possible. The support JAM has received from volunteers, staff, members of the public and their dogs has been overwhelming; we couldn’t have managed without it. An especially large thank you to everyone who helped us backfill this week, you absolute heroes!
The JAMCam is going to take a brief hiatus while we work on some of the boring admin behind the scenes next week, but we will be back and filled to the brim with updates as soon as post-ex begins. Thank you for keeping up with our journey so far, rest assured there will be plenty more to come, and keep an eye on the Jarrow Hall website for updates.