The whole lot, and me behind the camera, ready to lift up a stone from Trench C(Nick and Rosie's)

Mark giving instruction as to how to proceed the work at Trench C, where the entrance to the cellar is.

Me at my last day of digging up Bob. He was a wild one.

Parts of Jenna and her whole pipe

Mark and Hannah looking around the interior of the Upper House- serious talk time!

Stephen SuperStar

That day I killed Bob!

First Tour around the project site day at Plas Brynkir! We're all up and down in the Training room at 9am, dressed up in our fancy Cardiff University Student Guide t-shirts and ready to show some people how much we know about the site, or how much we don't. Should we be nervous, chilled, anxious, or do we just want to keep on digging? There was really no time for such existential, profound questions. I should have learned how to improvise these stuff earlier in my life. Now I'm just an almost 22-year-old first year student an I start forgetting English just because I have 3 people following me around and expecting to be amazed. For me the funniest bit of the tour was the beginning itself when I started off smoothly with forgetting the word "bridge" in English. The other teams had their own group to lead around and I had to start the tour of my group with introducing the Lower House. Pieces of history of the site, pieces of my rotten English and a lot of awkward pauses, while looking at my notes. Thank the Goddess Pete came down from the hostel for reasons unknown to me. You remember Pete-our dig food-magician, favorite person to play NEVER HAVE I EVER WITH and my rival for the snacks in the vending machine. Off topic!!! It took me exactly 20 minutes to get my compact group of lovely archaeology involved people around the Lower House and up to the hostel. Jenna was the one taking our group to the Upper House which is also the actual dig site at the moment. She was treading in front of the hostel, waiting for the group to come out and completely forbid me to go with her. I don't really blame her- I do tend to overtake and I wouldn't want to be doing to a team-mate, even less to a friend. After the tour was officially over and we bid our farewells with the lovely elderly visitors we went back to digging and surveying in the afternoon. That, men and gentle-ladies was the exact time of Bob's death. About 25 to 2 pm I reckon... I had finished the rusty layer of soil the day before and I hit the next context and was ready to put lots of effort into troweling I realized everything beneath my hands was a compact surface. I should have been happy but this was perhaps the saddest day in my archaeological existence. After cautious cleaning, taking of photos and information for drawings Bob will be proclaimed officially dead. I am not ashamed to admit I did procrastinate, just a tiny bit. But we all know good things come to an end. Other things happened at the site as well. I would hate for the readers of this blog, as few as they may be, to be scandalized by my selfishness. Jenna reached a flagstone surface in her trench and cleared the place where a supposed window-seat is, the lovely Lily kept on expanding her main door trench and Kate was winning over the white hat(SUPERVISOR) by helping out Rosie and Nick in their monster trench. As for Stephen and Alex they did in fact leave us on the field, digging in sun and rain and began work with Mark on the drawing up of plans for the Upper House. It was another fine day at Plas Brynkir. And everyday does get better. We are a lucky bunch

Don't ask what your dumpy level can do for you, ask what you can do for your dumpy level!

Day 8 was one of those bizarre days, which seem to last forever, especially when your eyes are dangerously closing up every time you need them to be open. It was time for me to stop recording Bob for a bit and get on with troweling him. That necessity became even stronger when sometime after lunch Will, who was digging a trench in the exterior of the house, just like me, reached a cobbled surface. Bad thing it took him a bit too long to call Mark for supervision. Will started taking out the cobbles which Mark later believed were part of the original ground covering of the house. Unfortunate, but shit happens. To be honest the idea of finding a original level in my dear Bob motivated me even more and I was more keen than ever on getting the rusty-colored layer of the trench. But before anything else cold happen I had to get the dumpy level out, as I was know a proud owner of the knowledge ho to use it. Needless to say, after you have presumably read the title of this post, everything didn't quite go peachy with the dumpy level. As of that day I o have a love-hate relation with that specific piece of surveying equipment. The measurements themselves are not hard to read. However, the spirit level on it is a tricky bastard which I never could have conquered without the help of Kate. Later that day Jenna, who was by then completely consumed with her lovely trench, reached a wall on both ends of it, which could only mean proof for the window seat hypothesis of Mark and Hannah. By the end of day 8, amidst the singing, the occasional reminder of NEVER HAVE I EVER and the strive to get to end of the day, I indeed reached the end of the rusty context in my trench. I wish this could all sound more exciting to you, not just some dry facts from a damp trench. But then again I am not sure anyone can really know how we feel every day without getting their hands in the dirt. Life long and carry on troweling.

Day 7: I'm above the grid

The rust was everywhere. I looked down Bob and as my hands and knees were still feeling so soar I felt a bit reluctant to get back in him. The good thing with troweling is once you start you get so caught up in it that nothing else matters. The morning was quiet and empty of finds and somewhat full of the revelations from the previous night's NEVER HAVE I EVER. It was after lunch that the interesting matters started coming out. I remember quite clearly that I was sieving the soil from Bob, my trench, when Jenna went suspiciously quiet for a bit and then jumped right out of her trench, hiding something in her palms. As my usual bossy self I wanted to see and started jumping around Jenna, the dwarf that I am compared to her, to try and see. She was however relentless and wouldn't let anyone else but Mark see her find first. To be honest I have never before seen Jenna so excited and emotionally involved and with an object at that- but no shame on her. It was a complete pipe, made out of clay, with production marks and names on it, and with a gazed light-green finish to it. At that time it was my turn, honor and privilege to learn something new. I had to start properly recording my trench and a grid plan, or a bird's eye-view for the unenlightened, was the next agenda. As I am only an inexperienced first year I had Lily and Kate help me. Not only did they explain everything I needed to know in the best way, they also made me a blump-bob. This miracle of nature, and the swagger minds of the YOLO-team, was named Jason and he is now forever going to stay in the breast pocket of my blue waterproofs. While all this was happening at trench A- mine and Jenna's trenches combined, Nick and Rosie ( part of team B) found another wall in their monster of a trench and soon after bits of a huge metal object became visible in the soil covering the steps to the Upper House's cellar. All in all this was a good day, but when I get to think about it they all turn out to be good anyways

Days 5 and 6: There is something seriously wrong with loving a trench this much

Apologies for the sudden merging of day experience, however to me it all feels the same when I am around Bob. He is my little 1 by 1 meter window in the past and has facilitated views into the history of demolition at the Upper House of Brynkir. Bam! New context. Bam! Another one. I felt so overly concentrated on what may come out of the loose soil that everything else just faded. People somewhere keep killing each other, bad things keep happening to good and not so good people and there I was just troweling as if I was troweling for my own life. I wonder if this is not too pretentious, too much over the top for me - to feel so obsessed with a whole in the ground, made by me at that. Jenna was still sat right across the wall, which serves as one of Bob's sides. This experience keeps proving to be very healthy for her, as I can see the amazing progress she has accomplished from day 1. On the far corner of the exterior wall Will kept digging his trench and hit a very compact grayish layer which according to Mark could be late medieval. Day 5 was also the day when I learned how to use the dumpy level. Imagine my total amazement at the fact that I actually now know what to do with that peculiar thingy. I keep talking about archaeological procedures and on-field skills as if they are something magical and unearthly. Of course I know they are not. This is just me, realizing my total merging with a world I have previously felt unreachable. Even though the first year at Cardiff Uni has taught me so much, surely nothing can be compared to this: feeling the dirt in between your fingers, saving the worms from the vicious edge of the trowel and taking little pieces of someone's history out of the soil. Day 6 had a rather sad turn to it for that was the day after which Hannah left Plas Brynkir, Cwm Pennant and 9 Cardiff University students completely adoring her. Sometimes life and the schedule of an archaeological dig do rather surprise us. Towards the end of this day I finally reached a layer in my trench beyond demolition. The rusty color of the soil got me so excited that I was even eager to return to it al day during our day off. Now all that is left for me is to boldly go where no one has gone before.

Bob in the beginning

Me on day 4! Just before getting on with my trench

Stephen and me, working on Bob the lovely trench!

Jenna and Lily looking down at Bob: 22nd of July

Mark, project leader, supervising our first barbecue of the dig:the 21st of July

The celler inside the Upper House, where Rosie, Alex and Nick are digging at the moment

The 21st of July- Jenna and me, setting up the last pegs of the first base line, however wrong it was

Hannah, our PhD supervisor's home in the mountains and the view to the back of the hostel.

Bob affairs: Day 4 at Plas Brynkir

The sky was gray with clouds on the morning of the 23rd of July. Thank the gods for waterproofs. As I am sat here in the dining room of our temporary home, writing this shout out to archaeological enthusiasts , I do wonder how to exactly transfer on to whoever reads it the level of seriousness and fun we are having at the same time. It was my second day of working down at Bob, my trench at the west range of the Upper House. My trench guide and master into the dark corners of context sheets, Stephen, is like a high-pitch jukebox. Jenna, working at Clive the trench, opposite us, was partnering up with Lily, another second-year on site, and the cavalcade of musical choices for us to badly sing out is raining down on us like summer rain. By this point the third team of students, made out of my course mates was already transferred to work at the Upper House as well, so we were once again in the same place. Superhuman Will was digging up a trench with second-year and YOLO(for future reference: You Only Live Once) instructor Kate(eating fondue with the Biebester). I would like to believe there is more I can tell you but just in order to be myself I will conclude that you have to be here to experience the atmosphere. I myself do feel like a child in a candy store, although I doubt it in a candy store my knees would be hurting so badly. Okay, okay! I will leave the complaints for another life-time. And I just remembered to tell you to beware of bats. Not really! We had one on the 22nd and in the bedroom of the hostel. After nearly an hour of giggling in our beds, well into the early hours of the day, Alex, sleeping on the bunk bed next to mine said something about a bat. This was all somewhat creepy after Kate telling us about the bat nightmare she had the day before. Who would have known that archaeological excavations can unlock psychic abilities. Dig long and prosper my friends, for I will!

it

The crew taking a tea break before the last minutes of work for the day: 23rd of July

21nd of July Jenna at the Lower House, a.k.a our first pegs without supervision.

Me taking a bearing along the first peg of the base line along the line of sight between the Upper and Lower Houses

Getting down and dirty with Bob

The third and fourth day of the Diggatiers, however glorious on their own, had more or less the same concentration of work load and positioning on the site of the Brynkir project. On the morning of the 22nd of July Mark led us to the site of the Upper House, where we had to continue the clearing of overgrowth on the north-facing exterior wall on the west range of the structure. The exciting bit for me began when Mark asked me to clear a 1 meter section of the wall. My fine trowel with the proud name of Nebuchadnezzar finally came into action and out of my black rucksack. What followed the clearing of a layer of moss, covering the boulders of the wall, was Mark teaching me how to fill in more forms for the description of buildings and standing structures and the first baby steps towards me having to draw a ground plan of the section I was clearing. All this may sound to you like a load of incredibly unsubstantial things to do. To me those are of the most important skills I have so far learned in my path of an archaeology student. Before I even noticed I was starting to clear more and more of the topsoil from my 1 meter section and this little bit of our small planet was what later became my first trench, a.k.a. Bob. For future reference that is the only way I will refer to my trench. Not because I think it's funny, even though I do, but because I like to believe Bob has his own character and, yes, maybe even a soul. Oh how spiritual of me... Later on that day my lovely team-mates Jenna and Will started digging their own trenches not far from Bob. The Upper house stands no chance. Jenna is now part of the little group of two digging up a trench right across Bob, on the other side of the wall. As soon as Stephen joined Bob and me work became even more fun and easy to do. Troweling, troweling, then sieving, then some more troweling and our third day was over and done. To be continued...

Stephen, Bob and I

Digger's Log: Day 2

A bright shiny morning at Cwm Pennant and our second day begins with the frantic search of highly needed cork boards. Got one! What may perhaps be every students worst fear came true and Mark spoke those scary words: "Let's do some gardening!" The task for the day- to clear overgrowth so that a line of sight could be established between the Upper and Lower Houses. To be completely honest I didn't quite realize how much "gardening" was required. The further we got with cutting down trees and removing thorny bushes the growing realization hit me that this was a whole day consuming task. It was just after the lunch, provided by Pete and his budgeting, that Hannah asked for 2 volunteers. Now that a few days are standing between me and that very magic hour, I come to the steady conclusion that was the actual beginning of the Diggatiers learning experience. Let me never forget telling you about out only male Diggatier: Will! That guy goes into a superhuman mode every time he is given a task. Jenna and I should only be so happy that faith, the lovely people in charge of the dig placements at The Archaeology Department at Cardiff Uni, and the stern but approachable Mark Baker all got us in a team with Will. Back to this learning experience I was so flatteringly talking about, I must probably admit I was completely ignorant of how to do the real stuff- those handy, dozens of archaeological practical skills and tricks on site that actually awaken some very odd, deep-flowing emotion in me. It's not as much the practical skills themselves, but being able to understand what they actually lead to... I do degrees. I try not to make a habit out of it, like for example today when I got too carried away while troweling my trench. I did it again! Not to keep the keen readers in suspense, this big thing that Jenna and I were learning to do was setting up a base line. In other words, less fancier than I would like, we were sticking pegs in the already cleared ground beginning from the corner of the Upper House. This was made with the honest intention of setting up the first base line of the project. That, of course, never would have been done by us without the careful help and guidance of Hannah, our bad-ass supervisor. At the time of our peg-experience, Will was taken away from the saw and was simply now moving trees around. Jenna and I got transferred from the Upper House down to the Lower House where we had to continue the base line. The end of our working day out ended up at the midden deposit by the Lower House where we did more clearing. Highly excited and moderately tired, but mostly delighted with everything I was told, we, Diggatiers, headed back the the Training room for some finds cleaning and recording. This was the evening of one very heated discussion over the difference between clay silt and silty clay. May the gods watch over archaeologists and their complete lack of connection to reality, which also makes it the most charming job in the world for all of us. It's funny to me how every day seems so far away in my mind and at the same time too close. Just like on a roller-coaster you just keep on going faster until the very end. Am I still talking about digs or is it all the same?

Come and have a look

Hannah and Kate washing up the fancy ceramic, hand-painted piece we found at the end of day 1.

This is the start of something

Is this a good day for science? The 20th of July 2012. First day of the Plas Brynkir: Archaeological Building Investigation and Recording promises to be a good one, with sympathizing weather and a group of archaeology students almost completely ignorant as to what they would be doing. The working day started in the Training Room ,our own HQ, where all the action happens and all the rainy days might be spent. After a short talk on the merits of measuring techniques, building ground plans, drawings and filled with question about how, when and where we headed off to the Tower. As this is my first day of exploring the site I ought to say I was not quite prepared for the scenic site the Brynkir estates is set on. The steep green hills on one side and the notion of the sea just a few miles away does add up to the atmosphere of the site, making this a special place of archeological importance. The Tower, on the verge of where vineyards were ones supposedly situated, stands impressive even in between the tall trees that have steadily been taking over this landscape for around 2 centuries. If we are to label the different parts of this one day, with the strict covenant I have my compact little group of 3 in mind, I would personally call it: “If the devil is not in the detail, he surely is somewhere in between the mortar laughing at our attempts at taking measurements.” This rough start was in fact the task of measuring the facade of the Tower. What should have taken us 30 minutes we did half-way in an hour. Feeling down about something you can't do is most definitely not a good start to a whole month of excavations. However, before all eagerness left our little group, I reminded myself we're still only learning. And we are learning fast at that. Nothing is perfect and as it turns out neither are the different sides, building stones and elevation lines to the Tower at the Brynkir estate, just above the Upper House, respectively near the Cwm Pennant hostel where our little expedition group is staying for the period of the digs. Unfortunately we weren't able to stay at the site of the Tower for long as the owners came in. We were expected to wrap up our tasks swiftly. After a tasty lunch, provided by our magician of an administrator Pete, all groups followed the lead of Mark, our project director and Hannah, the lovely PhD student helping us out. We were about to take a walk around the site of the project. In my mind I like to think of that moment as one of a shy acquaintance between two sides in an arranged marriage, without all of the negative overtones of course. Truth is neither one of us, 9 Cardiff students, knew exactly what we were getting ourselves into. A walk down the Back Drive, from the once stables of the Brynkir estate provided the whole group with an exciting peak at just what awaits us in this month to come. Almost a hundred meters after we walked out of the hostel, Mark spotted a stone structure along the road, which could turn out to be the lost stairs of the estate. What followed after we came to the end of the back drive and had to go down the main one has a different interpretation for each and every one of us. It was not unlike those moments when everything goes dark, you all walk into one door but all see different things. The main drive wasn't cleared, however, in the name of archaeology, and our own pride, we kept on further in between the twisted trees and bushes. If comparing this to a mini- Welsh jungle, the closest thing anywhere near a lion were the sheep from the meadow just a throw away from us. Closely followed by Jenna, my group mate and Cardiff uni friend, after getting out of the embrace of the gone-wild trees, we were in front of the Lower House. And what an amazing sight it was. You know that moment in a cheesy romantic drama, involving an arranged marriage, when the bride sees her husband-to-be for the first time and the audience can here an angelic choir singing. Well, minus all the cheesiness of such a case, I felt exactly the same. Highly relieved by the beauty of the house and its different chronological stages of construction, I was ready to shake away the uncertainty of the morning measurement disaster. Exploring the midden deposits right to the east of the Lower House the other two group stumbled upon some very interesting finds, that immediately spiked up the learning archaeologists strive for glory. Hands were troweling in the dirt, some more hands were troweling and then a painted part of a plate sprung out of the silt and into Kate's hands. Me? I was carrying the finds bags, being utterly confused about what was happening, and still heavily mesmerized by the still standing Lower House. Continuing our exploration of the whole of the Brynkir site we went up Bryn Brain ( The Crow's Hill) and down the Water Gardens. However undoubtedly the highlight of my day was the finds processing and recording. We all got to wash up bits and pieces of the ceramics, pottery and glass that were found on the initial field walk. At the end of a long day, what seemed like a walk through an eternity of information, all of us 9 Cardiff Uni students found ourselves back in the Training Room at our lovely temporary home for my first ever finds processing. The ceramics, glass and pottery found by the other group were washed and recorded, a few context sheets were filled and thus our first day at the Plas Brynkir project ended. This is the beginning of a wonderful story. All you need to do is stay with the Three Diggatiers all the way through this adventure and discover just how amazing it gets.