Water and sun cream was our main priority today. After a dreary Monday, Tuesday was sunny and hot. While the sun was much appreciated, many have said that they in fact preferred the rain. Despite the heat, we have recovered some interesting objects in interesting locations.
Looking for shade
The most interesting find was at Mont Saint Jean. While digging, the team stumbled on two live rounds of ammunition from the Second World War. The authorities were called in, and the objects were removed from the excavation. The site is now being wrapped up, with just some recording going on.
In the killing field, objects continue to be discovered in the eastern corner of the excavation. Another trench has been opened towards the west, which amazingly had nothing or very little objects in it. This shows that the amount of finds in the eastern corner are real, and, as Tony said “not just a figment of our sampling, which is exactly what we wanted.” There are some archaeological features there as well, mainly the path that is leading through the centre of the trenches. This will continue to be excavated over the next couple of days, but no new trenches will be opened up.
Camille measuring the height of the trench
John clearing out the trench
Sam’s trench in the potato field has been found to be nothing more than a clearance pit as suspected. There was a bronze button right underneath it. The two anomalies that had been spotted have been discovered have been excavated, but it most certainly isn’t a mass grave.
The work in the courtyard is going great. Walls have been found and the digging continues to reveal more and more of it. In Phil’s trench, the walls have yielded another treasure, namely three British musket balls and one French musket ball. This provides the concrete evidence of the battle of the north gate, which was lacking until now. At this point, we can say with certainty that the north gate was breached by the French and that there was heavy fighting in the courtyard.
Phil revealing another layer of brick
Both Emily’s and Sats’ trenches have provided more information about the buildings that stood there. The doorway that was found in Emily’s trench is no longer a doorway, but the end of the building, with another building starting a bit further to the right. This indicates that there were multiple buildings which were not connected to each other.
Sats and Peter measuring the width of the anomaly in the trench
Emily, Dorothy and John measuring the distance between the rocks and the end of the trench
We received some great press coverage today as well. A crew from ITN News at Ten came by, and filmed all over site. The segment has already aired, and it can be found online on the ITV Hub, starting at 26:36. A local Belgian newspaper also wrote an article about the project (in French) which can be found here. The British Forces Broadcasting Services (BFBS) also visited us. Their segment will be up on Wednesday or Thursday.
Phil being interviewed by BFBS
