My Summer of Archaeology

 Hello!

The equinox has come and gone, and the leaves are finally beginning to turn. All of this means autumn has set in and summer is most definitely over. So I really should actually write up about my summer...

Books A'Hay

My first year of university finished back in June. The first thing I did was celebrate completing this step in becoming an archaeologist. And how did I celebrate? By buying more books on archaeology...

I went to Hay-on-Wye for a weekend. While I was there I fell in love with the town. After all, what is there not to love about a cute little market town full of cafes and bookshops? The Poetry Bookshop was a joy, I was finally able to track down some copies of Emily Dickinson and Sapho that I had been looking for, for well over a year. (I have a thing about trying to find a physical copy of books I want to read rather than buying them online, but sometimes I am too impatient.) But the true gem in my trip was the Old Cinema bookshop. This is exactly what it sounds like, an old cinema that has been converted into a bookshop. This means it has rows upon rows of books spread across two floors and I'm not quite sure how many rooms as the bookshelves themselves were used to divide up the space. It was an absolute labyrinth that I easily could have spent twice as long in and not even explored half it. But go up the stairs opposite the shop door and what greats you but a whole selection of archaeology books; clumped together at first but as you go further into the building they get split up into themes and spread amongst the shelves. And as they are second hand many of the books are at a much nicer price.

 Fieldwork

One of the main parts of any archaeology degree is the fieldwork. Essentially, being taught how to dig and record fancy holes. 

It is actually quite complicated and involves a lot of physical labour. However, it was also two of the best weeks I have had in a field. I was down in the stunning county of Herefordshire working on what was technically two sites: Snodhill Castle, and Arthur's Stone. These were two very different sites. Snodhill was a Norman motte and bailey castle, whereas Arthur's Stone was a Neolithic chambered tomb. Unfortunately, there is not a great deal I can say about the sites yet as one of my assessments this year is writing a report on my fieldwork, and I don't want to accidentally self-plagiarise! 

However, my university fieldwork was not the only project I was involved with this summer. I also had the opportunity to dig for a few days at a site not far from home- Chirk Castle. This was organised by the Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust, which is one of four archaeological trusts in Wales. This site lay inside the estate of Chirk Castle, which is managed by the National Trust and owned by the Middleton family. The trench I was in was investigating a building that was in some way associated with the castle. It was a really intriguing site as there were no archival records to help unpick the mystery of what the building was used for. Even this led to some really fascinating discussions as different people on-site proposed their ideas. That is one of the things I love most about being on-site, it's a lovely atmosphere to meet new people who come from all sorts of walks of life. You have to work as a team on-site and the joint effort definitely encourages a wonderful sense of camaraderie, even if like me, you're only there for a few days.

London Adventure

Myself and two of my best friends went down to London in the middle of August for a few days. We had an absolute ball and along the way saw lots of amazing historical things, as well as some more touristy things like going to see a play on the West End. This makes a lot of sense considering we were friends because we all met studying History and English Lit at A-Level. We went to the Science Museum and I relived my childhood dream of becoming an astronaut as we walked under the planets in the Space exhibit; the Tate Modern, which was really fascinating as I never really knew much about modern art; the Victoria and Albert Gallery (and I got rather excited looking at the exhibit on historical dress); and finally the British Museum. I could honestly have spent the length of the entire trip within the British galleries. My friends have some hilarious photos of me literally jumping on the spot when I recognised some of the finds I had been writing essays about last year while at university.

Well, that's a wrap on my summer. I hope you all had a lovely summer, and with the nights drawing in, a lovely autumn. I think my next post will be about experiencing an actual face-to-face 'freshers' (the novelty!), which should be up fairly soon. Thanks for reading!