What a beautiful day at Little Asby Community Dig!!  Although it started off a little chilly this morning it was not long before jumpers were off and sun cream was on. As the weather was so nice I headed up to site slightly early and popped the drone in the air to record our overall progress so far.  I just wanted to share one of the gorgeous views that I am privileged to capture being a drone pilot.

As the volunteers arrived they all headed up to site and set to work. Our new team member today was Jacquie who Andy briefed before putting her to work.

Jan and Linda jumped back into Trench A where they proceeded to remove a section of the south-eastern enclosure wall.  Sadly no more finds today but they did reveal a good profile showing the construction of the stone part of the enclosure.  Once this area was cleaned they then proceeded photograph and draw the section. Great teamwork ladies.

James, Rebecca and Claire worked with Andy and Katie in Trench E in the new extension to the north-east looking for a possible entrance into the Longhouse.  They removed the turf and then moved to cleaning back the newly exposed area.  Later in the day Katie moved into the area where Richard was yesterday to record the south facing section.  

In Trench C Hilary, joined by Jacquie, carried on the cleaning of the newly opened area in the north-eastern end of the longhouse in the possible Byre. The hope is that by removing the deposits in layers we can possibly locate a floor surface.

In the north-eastern side of Trench C Perry was troweling back the deposit outside the longhouse that contained fragments of flint. As this deposit is looking like it pre-dates the longhouse the designated area for trowling was clear of the external side of the north-eastern wall to avoid cross contamination.

Work continued in Trench F where we placed a trench to look at a possible entrance in the north-western enclosure wall.  Sadly the evidence so far does not support that this was an entrance but just an area of tumbled stones and a sheep track. Today I was joined by Alan, Helen and Andrew in Trench F and they continued to remove a section of the wall so that the construction could be recorded within the section. Once this was done we then proceeded to clean back either side to prepare for photographs and photogrammetry.

We do have some exciting news that we can now share with you! Yesterday Richard made a fantastic find within the deposit below the enclosure wall in Trench E. I held off mentioning this until we had confirmation of its origin but it appears we have a fragment of a polished Langdale axe.  I  have added the comment below that we received from our Flint Specialist at Oxford Archaeology.

"It is indeed a flake from a polished stone axe, very likely a fragment from a Group VI axe (Langdale). It appears to have come from a principal face of an axe, possibly the blade end, and given its size and morphology was probably detached during use of the implement. It has a ground and polished outer surface which curves down on a lateral edge to the remnants of a side facet".

Well tomorrow is another day and who knows what else we will discover at the Little Asby Community Dig.