What we found on the dig

Treasures of Ramsey Abbey Exhibition

Young archaeologists’ test pitting exercise - August 2021

This small report is the final piece of the young archaeologists’ test pitting exercise carried out over four weekends (Saturday and Sunday afternoons). The report has been produced to give the young archaeologists and their parents the opportunity to see how their endeavours have added to what is known about the excavation area of the Ramsey Rural Museum. This report also gives the young archaeologists an idea of the amount of work that is carried out before the excavation (geophysics and land survey) and after the excavation - research (finding out dates and information), report writing and post-processing (capturing the data). The test pits produced an assemblage of mainly 20th century demolition material, although it is possible that the small section of clay pipe (Test Pit G), ceramic roofing tile (Test Pit K) and handmade nails (Test Pits A, C and D) are earlier. The demolition pieces collected are small pieces but in lower contexts (layers below the depth of the test pits) the pieces will be larger but will be of the same type of material. Several pieces of good quality limestone (Barnack Stone type) were also found but were placed back in the test pits when backfilled. The test pitting exercise, the excavation finds, and geophysics survey also showed that at some time in the past (before April 1990) the field drain extended beyond its present position to a position closer to today’s museum buildings. Worth noting is that over thirty years have passed since the backfilling of the field ditch and the chocolate wrappers and cellophane are still in-tact. The Museum and archaeology teams hope you enjoyed your archaeological excavation experience and would like to thank you for spending part of your weekends with us.

Happy digging! Sally, Roger and the exhibition and archaeology team.

Metal Detecting Survey by Alan Roberts

While Warboys Archaeology Group have been running the Young Archaeologist’s weekend sessions for the past few weeks, I have been running a metal detecting survey in the Museum grounds to see what other archaeology could be found/located.

The oldest finds were a couple of medieval lead fishing weights. The oldest coins date to George 111 (1760 to 1820) and the oldest being a Halfpenny of 1806.

See the display at the museum - I have included various modern items you find to show it is not all ancient artefacts or coins that you find. Thanks Alan.