Valerie1940

By Valerie1940

Oxburgh Archaeology again

Last summer I took part in the archaeological project to examine the debris in the attic roof spaces. (Dirty and dusty work on very small fragments)
Today was quite different - looking at the stuff found on the surface of a recently ploughed and tilled field in the parkland. It had been washed and sorted and that of little or no interest discarded. What remains is to be logged onto a data base so that each piece will be referenced with the exact area where it was found and physically labelled with the reference.
This involved writing with a dip pen with a very fine nib, ink either black or white, and a clear base polymer/acetone solution which was painted on to a small part of the object to take the ink then coated again to seal it. (This means that the ink does not actually touch the surface of the object and the ink and polymer ‘sandwich’ can be easily removed with a cotton bud and acetone leaving the surface unmarked)
The label needed to be as unobtrusive as possible, on the underside of the object as it would be exhibited in a museum or exhibition, so the writing had to be small! These four flints ranged  in size from a quite large chunk, about 5cm diameter to a small piece barely 2cm long. The photo shows the top of each piece as it would be shown and the underside with the label.
The ‘extras’ show the beauty of the red colour in a flint, and also a small (about 2.5cm) piece of decorated pottery. The back view looks a different shape and size because the piece is concave with the glaze on the inner surface.

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