Dig diary – three quadrants exposed

Wednesday, July 15, 2026 (6:51 PM)

Site director Nick ponders the newly exposed south-eastern quadrant, while Paul and Jim set to removing more overlying material in its north-eastern neighbour. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Day Eight
Wednesday, July 15, 2026

A shorter diary than usual tonight (which will maybe be a relief to some) as it’s been full steam ahead today across the trench.

The south-eastern quadrant has now been brought down to the level of its immediate neighbours, revealing another rubble-filled depression outside the circular anomaly.

Another rubble dump in the south-eastern quadrant. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

And talking of rubble, Ray and Sigurd continued working down through the deposit in the south-western quadrant, with Ray reaching the natural – the original ground surface – this afternoon. This, together with the natural in the north-east quadrant, confirmed the shallow depth of the surviving archaeology – at least compared to what we’ve been used to excavating over the past 20 years.

Ray reaches the natural (the yellow material to the left of his bucket. (📷 Sigurd Towrie)

Along the same lines, finds remain something of a rarity and theories and debates about the reason, and the nature of the archaeology, continue to buzz across the site.

We’ll be back tomorrow but until then, some more sun-drenched photographs from today.