Animated fly-through of Khasa Malla nauli

I've just finished processing some of the record shots from the recent fieldwork in Nepal. I'm using Autodesk 123D Catch to stitch digital photographs and create 3-D photogrammetric models of a sample of the monuments so we can see if this is a viable way of recording monuments quickly and accurately. An added advantage is you can easily create animated fly-throughs of the models that give a 3-D impression of the actual monument which is great and has lots of potential uses within a project that aims to help enable heritage tourism.

This 3-D model was created using standard archaeological record shots, for a full 3-D model we'd have needed to take many more photos to cover all the angles, still it gives a good idea of what is possible given a bit of time and a digital camera.

The featured monument is a nauli or waterpoint at Bhurti in Dailekh, West Nepal. It is 20 yards or so from the major Khasa Malla temple site of Bhurti, which has 22 intact temples, plus the remains of potentially many more. I'll add some more fly-throughs as and when I get them processed.

Kankrevihar temple, Surkhet

We are waiting for the last of the team to arrive and are still in the town of Surkhet, down at about 700m altitude in the middle of a roughly circular valley surrounded by hills. The town has got increasingly busy over the 13 years since my last visit and has a large bustling bazaar and on a sunny day like this is a great place to soak up the atmosphere of being back in Nepal.

This morning I went on a short sightseeing trip to the remains of the Buddhist Kankrevihar temple which is about 15 minutes drive outside Surkhet on a wooded hill in the centre of the valley.

 

View of temple platform, surrounded by carved stones

The temple had either collapsed or been destroyed at some point in the past and the site was

Unfinished business in the Himalaya

In 1998 I spent two months walking across Nepal from the southern Terai to the mountains and valleys north of Jumla. Logistically the expedition was totally self-supporting (bar the odd bit of spinach) and worked its slow way across a changing landscape from the flat plains of the Terai through arid foothills, across alpine meadows to wide gravel valleys with braided rivers, lush terrace systems and dense forested slopes. The aim was to carry out a reconnaissance of surviving monuments along a 'royal road' between the Summer and Winter capitals of a medieval kingdom that helped shape modern Nepal: the Khasa Malla.

Camp at contemporary temple site at Dullu

CVs for fieldwork jobs

I was reading this post about CVs on Doug's Archaeology site, its one of two good posts Doug has written on CVs, the other one is here. I wrote an article back in 2010 for the Diggers' Forum on CVs and thought I would repost it here, its a rough guide to archaeological CVs, plus how to get hired without the magical '6 months of commercial experience'. It was originally published in the Forum Dispatch Issue 5.

Professional archaeology is still a small world where most people will know someone who knows you, but the days of getting jobs down the pub and by word of mouth are (mostly) gone. This article gives some advice for the those looking for site work. It is primarily intended for those at the start of their career but the advice is just the same for old lags struggling to cope with the baffling world of email applications and HR forms.

Integrating excavation and analysis on urban excavations

Text of presentation to CAAUK 2013, video of the presentation is available on Doug's Archaeology blog HERE.

This paper is from the perspective of an archaeologist who works principally on urban sequences, I am neither a technophile nor a complete Luddite, but Guy felt it would be good to get a digger’s input into the debate.

I wrote the initial abstract after a conversation with Guy, and as with all things it has evolved into something more or less completely different. What I’d like to talk about is some of the issues around technology on site –from a fieldworker’s perspective- using London as an example, and with a case study of where we have been successfully using new technology.

First off I think its worth giving a brief run down of London’s archaeological landscape –in terms of how we excavate and analyse our sites:

CAAUK 2013

The Computer Methods and Quantitative Methods in Archaeology -UK Conference (CAAUK) is being held in London on the 22nd-23rd February, hosted by L-P: Archaeology. The programme and abstracts are now out, and it looks like a really good mix of papers. I will be giving a paper on urban excavation and analysis techniques that will look at how we can use computer applications to create elegant systems and enable better excavation:

Integrating excavation and analysis on urban excavations: developingelegant methods for integrated systems and methodologies for the excavation andanalysis of urban sites

For the last 40 years the excavation of urban sites has increasingly been characterised by the use of single context recording; for the last 25 years the post-excavation analysis of these sites has been increasingly characterised by a system of aggregation into larger stratigraphic groups (context<subgroup<group<landuse). These systems have been increasingly integrated with digital recording systems, databases and GIS systems. It is a testament to the logic and rigour of the original processes that they generally work very well within the digital systems that have been developed.

This paper will outline some current approaches to excavation and post-excavation used within London. It will highlight the role of databases and GIS, and will explore how we can integrate the excavation processes and recording systems to achieve better results on site and in post-excavation. The paper will also outline how we may increasingly utilise modern technology on site to facilitate these systems and enable the archaeologists on site make better use of their time, and make more informed decisions about the excavation process.
http://www.lparchaeology.com/caauk/integrating-excavation-and-analysis-on-urban-excavations/

TAG 2012 Liverpool

I’m just back from three days at TAG in Liverpool. I presented a short paper on simple, affordable and effective training methods for site staff as part of the Diggers' Forum session, the paper will be published in full next year and the DF is planning on publishing all the papers from their session in some format. An earlier version of my presentation is available on the FAME website: http://www.famearchaeology.co.uk/2012/07/presentations-from-fit-for-purpose/#more-618

 

The rest of TAG was the usual mix of sessions on theory, research and practice (although it didn’t seem very ‘TAGy’ this year, no sessions on post-processualism in Star Trek…) and catching up with old friends, and meeting new ones. Highlights for me included an excellent keynote speech critiquing reflexive archaeology and multivocality at Çatalhöyük by Shahina Farid, a paper on oral history and industrial period archaeology by Kerry Massheder, Anglo-Saxon cremation pots as brewing vessels by Gareth Perry, Viking Age archaeology by James Barratt, salt-making on the Atlantic coast and the EcoSal Project by Andrew Fielding, and Michael Nevill on Industrial Archaeology, databases and Grounded Theory. I’m looking forward to next year’s conference at Bournemouth.

Sections, shoring and single context recording

A recent contract with LP Archaeology in the City of London raised some aspects of recording worth some thought. The contract was an archaeological evaluation on a site that straddled the projected line of the Roman, medieval and post-medieval ditches that lie immediately outside the walls of Londinium and London. Due to the expected depth of the archaeological deposits (geo-technical boreholes showed up to 7.8m of potentially archaeological strata) the evaluation strategy was for five 2.5m x 2.5m test pits that would be dug as fully shored shafts. The test pits were located to give information on the survival of archaeological strata, the nature of any such deposits, and the potential survival of complex masonry and environmentally significant remains. The pits were positioned across the site in an L-shape with three of the test pits located to provide an east–west transect across the expected line of the defensive ditches.

In order to illustrate the excavated sequence it was decided to record a representative section of each test pit, these could be used to construct an illustrated section across the site which would illustrate the strata found in the test pits, along with their conjectured extent. The impact of the proposed development could be mapped against this to give an immediate visual representation of the site. Unfortunately given the projected depth of the test pits they would need to be close-shored with steel trench sheets and timberwork. After the first metre or so of each pit had been dug and the shoring had gone in, there would be little opportunity to view and record a traditional section as due to the loose nature of the fill the trench sheets needed to be dropped every 200-300mm to ensure the integrity of the shoring*. 

View of Test Pit 3 at approximately 7m depth

Electronic site registers: a way forward?

For many years context sheets and registers have been written on paper, whilst the databases containing the context information have been held on computer. Many early context sheets were designed for computer entry, and the standardised format, definitions and controlled vocabulary of a processual recording system lends itself perfectly to computer entry. The level of actual computer entry of context data varies massively across the country, with some units inputting all context data, whilst others select certain key details, and most of this data entry takes place off-site and in post-ex.

Minories

Work at the Minories evaluation is now completed, the test pits have all been backfilled and work on the report is well under way. The evaluation has given LP Archaeology an excellent insight into the type of deposits on the site, the range of artefacts, and the environmental conditions. Just as importantly we now have a better idea of the existing building’s foundations, and how they have affected archaeological survival, and how they will govern the excavation methodology.

 Natural gravels visible in a sondage through the lowest, organic rich, ditch fills

London Finds Factsheets

Urban Archaeology is planning a new series of illustrated factsheets on common London artefacts and has submitted an application for a grant to cover the cost of research, writing and production. 

The factsheets will be illustrated ‘spotter’s guides’ to each class of find, with a brief text on the artefact class, illustrated examples, common identification features, date ranges, and further reading. The information will be pitched at a level suitable for both professional Diggers and the interested amateur archaeologist or student. The factsheets will be published online as free pdf downloads and will be available as A2 posters  and as A4 factsheets. Work on the initial series of factsheets will be completed next year, with planned factsheets including London clay tobacco pipes, medieval and post-medieval pottery, and ceramic building material.

Urban Archaeology believes that these factsheets will help archaeologists in the basic identification of artefacts, will expand their knowledge of those finds, and will hopefully encourage further interest in finds and their study. The factsheets will hopefully prove invaluable to a wide range of archaeologists, from Diggers wanting to know more about the artefacts they are digging up, to members of the public eager to identify finds seen on the Thames Foreshore. The publication of the factsheets on the web will mean that they can be accessed at the point of need, via a smartphone or computer, as well as printed out for display in site huts, processing areas, for use as training and educational material, and for individual use. Urban Archaeology plans to expand the series over the coming years and hopes to develop factsheets on a broad range of archaeological subjects.

The City ditch

At the close of the week we were still excavating late 16^th century deposits within the test-pit sited over the City ditch; the adjacent borehole records further deposits beneath these which should date to the disuse of the ditch in the late medieval/Tudor period. John Stow records in the Survey of London that the entire City ditch was ‘cleansed’ in 1477, and that parts of the wall were repaired in brick at the same time. Sections of those brickwork repairs, including ‘diaper’ patterned decorative work, are still visible at St Alphege on London Wall.

Mapping, dumping and dating at Minories

Evaluation work is continuing at Minories. So far the archaeological sequence is broadly as predicted in LP Archaeology's desk based assessment, and we are now down to mid 17th century levels in one trench, digging through levelling dumps containing lots of brick rubble.

The upper surface of these dumps had been levelled out to form an external surface in the mid-late 17th century, with a brick pier base suggesting a building that is not shown on Ogilby and Morgan's map of 1676. Ogilby and Morgan's mapping is known to be highly accurate and is an excellent snapshot of the built environment in the late 17th century, however the surveyors could not always access back yards and enclosed private land, and the speed of building after the Great Fire means that some buildings are missing -especially smaller or more temporary structures. The map is however by far the best City-wide survey of London before the Ordnance Survey, and is a fantastic resource for archaeologists and historians with accurate mapping of roads, yards and houses, as well as the contemporary street and place names.

There are tantalising glimpses of industrial activity within the rubble dumps including glass making waste, crucible fragments and slag, as well as Roman brick and opus signinum (which may or may not be from the adjacent Roman town wall). Closely dateable clay tobacco pipes and ceramics should allow the sequence of dumps and surfaces to be dated and the rate of the dumping worked out -is this a single, orchestrated, episode of ground levelling intended to eradicate the line of the former City Ditch, or a piece-meal and ongoing process? 

Deep excavation in the City of London

For the next few weeks Urban Archaeology will be supporting LP Archaeology on an evaluation in the City of London. The site is on Minories, north of the Tower of London, and is situated immediately east of the City wall over the line of the Roman and medieval city ditch, and the land immediately to the east –possibly including areas used as a cemetery in the early Roman period. 

The view from the Minories site, Tower Bridge, Tower of London and the medieval City wall.

FAME Forum and Diggers' Forum/Prospect conferences

Last weekend Chiz spoke at two conferences in as many days: the FAME Forum which was themed on skills and employability, and the Diggers' Forum/Prospect conference on careers, both in York. Chiz gave an updated version of the training and reskilling paper he presented at Winchester at both sessions, as well as a short presentation on the Diggers' Forum survey on away work and travel.

21st Century Archaeologists

Chiz Harward presented a paper on training and reskilling at the recent 21st Century Archaeologists day-conference at the University of Winchester on the 19th June. His paper continues the themes set out in Chiz's recent article in The Archaeologist, and sets out the need to put training at the heart of everything we do on site. Chiz argues that there is a need for clear and logical methodologies on site in order to provide an adaptive framework within which we can excavate and record. These methodologies also need to be integrated with Post-excavation procedures and the boundaries between site and post-ex, and supervisor and archaeologist roles need to be blurred.

Training must be given space in which to be provided, but we also must give staff the time to do their job properly. It is no good training staff in stratigraphic excavation techniques if they are ordered to 'just hack it out' when they return to site.

Short-notice, short-term site cover on the Isle of Wight

Urban Archaeology has just finished providing watching brief cover for a national archaeological contractor and IfA Registered Organisation. Work involved  the monitoring of construction works on a major housing development on the Isle of Wight. The experience of many years working on construction sites means that following a client  briefing Chiz Harward can be trusted to 'read' the situation on site quickly, and to respond effectively with minimal need for the client to manage the situation.

Urban Archaeology can mobilise quickly and can be relied upon to provide flexible and professional cover on the full range of archaeological fieldwork projects from watching briefs to full excavation. The ability to engage a highly experienced archaeologist, who can be trusted to make the right decisions on site, is a major advantage to any archaeological employer. Urban Archaeology's services are of benefit to any archaeological organisation that finds themselves short-staffed, or in need of specialist site knowledge, such as for urban excavations.

Thames Discovery Programme Foreshore Factsheets

Looking through my past projects I came across the factsheets I prepared for the fantastic Thames Discovery Programme. The brief was to prepare a series of double-sided A4 factsheets presenting information on a range of common structures found on the Thames foreshore: causeways, fishtraps, gridirions and bargebeds, jetties and wharves and vessels. The finished factsheets were designed to be downloaded and printed out for use on the foreshore by the FROGS and can be viewed at http://www.thamesdiscovery.org/discover/foreshore-factsheets-vessels.

Upcoming training papers

I'll be presenting a new paper on training archaeologists at the upcoming 21st Century Archaeologists conference in Winchester on the 19th June. I'll also be talking on training at the FAME Forum in York on the 13th July, and on both the Diggers' Forum Away Work and Travel Survey, and training for archaeologists, at the Diggers' Forum/Prospect conference in York the next day .

Roman key from Southwark

I was recently commissioned to illustrate this magnificent Roman key from Southwark for the Portable Antiquity Scheme. The key is made from copper alloy and was originally made in two parts: the lion couchant body which is finely cast, and the key itself, also cast and inserted into the rear of the lion.
The body and legs of the lion has ring and dot, and line decoration, as well as a beautifully sculpted mane, and a rather enigmatic smile. Zoomorphic artefacts can be particularily tricky to illustrate, especially if they are laughing at you!

Water supply in Roman London: new research

Urban archaeology has just been awarded a generous grant by the City of London Archaeological Trust (CoLAT). The grant is to cover research into water supply in Roman London, using the eastern hill as a pilot study area. The project will examine excavated evidence and attempt to map the evolving systems of water supply, distribution and disposal throughout the Roman period using a GIS system. The resultant models will be then used to examine aspects of control and growth within the settlement over time.

Cheapside hoard illustrations

A few illustrations of pieces from a Late Saxon metalworker's hoard of over 40 unfinished pewter brooches, beads and rings found in a sewer heading in Cheapside, City of London in the 19th century (click on images to enlarge). They probably date to the 10th/11th century. These pieces, normally on display in The Museum of London, are not to be confused with a hoard of 17th-century jewelry commonly known as The Cheapside Hoard, some items of which are also in the Museum of London.

The large brooch was cast in one piece, and is directly paralled by a find from Dublin, almost certainly from the same mould.

The smaller brooches were made of twisted pewter wire within a surrounding wire ring and a central glass bead setting. This was all fixed in place by dipping the reverse of the brooch into molten pewter. The clasps were attached to the reverse whilst this was still hot, fusing the clasps to the brooch.

Fine metalwork like this needs careful and accurate illustration to show how the object was made, as well as what it looks like. The pieces have to be drawn to a level of detail where they can be compared with other published examples. The detailed examination necessary to understand how to illustrate the pieces also informs the wider research into the artefacts: here it was possible to tell which objects shared common moulds, and the sequence and method used to make the brooches.

PAS finds illustrations

Recent work has involved illustrating selected finds from the Portable Antiquities Scheme. Clockwise, from top left, a copper-alloy Roman branch, probably from a statuette; a fragment of a Bronze Age adzehead, probably broken up for scrap; a medieval copper-alloy strap end with incised decoration; and an 18th-century French clothseal from Calais (click on image to enlarge).

PAS finds illustrations

A Mesolithic flint adze drawn from photographs (click on image to enlarge).

Metal finds from Finsbury Circus

Roman small finds from Finsbury Circus, in the collections of the Museum of London; clockwise from top left:

Copper alloy wire bracelet or armlet with terminals, probably from a burial; Roman copper alloy key; Roman cast lead weight with raised concentric circular lines; Roman copper alloy balance (click on image to enlarge).

Finsbury Circus: Roman small finds

Roman copper alloy finds from Finsbury Circus, City of London in the Museum of London Collection (click on image to enlarge).

These pins, spoon, ligulae and tweezers were found during the construction of Finsbury Circus in the early 20th century and probably derive from burials within the Roman Upper Walbrook cemetery. These finds complement examples excavated under controlled conditions by MoLAS.

Finsbury Circus: Roman tombstone

Roman oolitic limestone tombstone from the Upper Walbrook cemetery (click on image to enlarge). Found in 1837 it is in the collection of the Museum of London.

The Inscription reads:
D M GRATA DAGOBITI FIL AN XL SOLINUS CONIVGI KAR F C

'To the spirits of the departed and Grata the daughter of Dagobiti, forty years old. Solinus arranged for this to be made for his dearest wife'

Stove tile

Medieval stove tile in the collections of the Museum of London (click on image to enlarge).

Hadrian's Wall

September and October 2009 saw Chiz working as site supervisor for English Heritage's Archaeological Projects up at Birdoswald on Hadrian's Wall. The site was part of a cremation cemetery which was fast disapearing over the edge of a 300 foot cliff into the River Irthing so the plan was to excavate a strip along the cliff edge to get ahead of the erosion. The team was led by EH Project Manager Tony Wilmott.

Recording on site was using a digital system from Sweden called Intrasis, which involves digital inputting of all data. This did cause some problems and issues, but given time and tweaking does have potential. The site also acted as a training excavation for a great bunch of archaeology students from Newcastle University under the direction of Professor Ian Haynes.

Numerous cremations were excavated, dating from the Hadrianic period onwards, with two possible 5th-century inhumation graves possibly relating to sub-Roman occupation of the fort. The cremation cemetery was contained by a small marker-ditch, parallel to a cobbled roadway, which had eroded into a hollow-way as it led downhill. The cremations were of various types, with possible bustum burials, as well as stone cysts and cobble lined cremation pits. Some cremations appear to have been marked by small ring ditches. No pyre sites were located, but areas of cobbled surface may indicate heavy use of some parts of the cemetery, possibly adjacent to pyres. Finds were fairly limited, although some pots were removed to Fort Cumberland for excavation in the lab, and initial x-rays suggest the presence of metal artefacts, including possibly fragments of chain mail. Tony Wilmott's weekly site roundups can be read here.

Site accomodation was next to the Augustinian Priory at Lanercost, a fantastic site and well worth a visit (photo above). The Cricket club is also worth a visit.

Site handouts

Urban Archaeology has developed a series of handouts covering excavation and post-excavation processes, and basic finds information (click on examples to enlarge). These are similar to 'crib sheets' used by some archaeological units but are not confined to basic archaeological techniques.

The handouts can be posted in site huts, handed out to staff, or used in training or seminar sessions or as the focus for weekly archaeological 'toolbox talks'. They have proved to be very useful on sites as both training tools and as an aide memoire and complement the basic technical information in the site manual.

Medieval floor tiles

Medieval floor tiles in the collections of the Museum of London (click on image to enlarge).

Roman lathe-turned porringer and ash bowl

Both pieces are in the Museum of London (MoLA), and were found within the Roman Upper Walbrook cemetery that lies beneath the Finsbury Circus area of the City of London.

The porringer was lathe turned from timber from a pollarded oak, which gives the beautiful effect from the myriad of small knots; it had warped badly since deposition and was illustrated as it would have appeared before warping (click on image to enlarge).

A sherd of this lathe turned ash bowl was found during excavations in 1987 by the then Department of Urban Archaeology of the MoL, a predecessor of MoLA (Museum of London Archaeology). It had been preserved by waterlogging beneath the early 20th century buildings.

The Upper Walbrook cemetery has been archaeologically investigated since the 19th century. Chiz Harward was Project Officer on recent major excavations by MoLA. A publication programme is now underway at MoLA which will incorporate some antiquarian findings as well as MoL excavations in a MoLA monograph.

The drawings were initially made in pencil, then scanned and finished in CorelDraw.

St Mary Spital, London: reconstruction of canons' infirmary

This is a draft reconstruction drawing based on the excavated evidence for the range of buildings which developed from the original late 13th/early 14th century two-room canons' infirmary (click on image to enlarge).

By Dissolution the area had developed into a complex of timber framed buildings around a
semi-enclosed courtyard and may have ceased to function as an infirmary.




The excavations at Spitalfields between 1998 and 2009 were just one part of a long campaign of excavations in the area by the Museum of London. The main MoLA excavations, led by Chris Thomas, uncovered a Roman burial ground, this was covered by the remains of the Augustinian priory hospital of St Mary Spital. The east end of the Priory church was excavated, as was the Canons' Infirmary, fishponds, gardens and much of the Outer Precinct which contained numerous tenement buildings. The main cemetery was also excavated, with over 10,000 individual skeletons excavated, possibly the largest archaeologically excavated cemetery in the world. Up to 100 archaeologists worked on the site for over a year.


Chiz Harward was one of the principal supervisors of the main excavations, and is co-author of the forthcoming medieval and post-medieval monographs.

Reconnaissance survey in west Nepal

In 1998 and 2000 Chiz Harward carried out a reconnaissance survey of medieval monuments in west Nepal for the Central Himalaya Project. This remote area of the Himalayas was once home to the medieval Khasa Malla kingdom, who established a winter palace in the foothills at Dullu, and a summer palace site in the mountains at Sinja. The two sites were joined by a royal road, part of a network of trading trails that criss-cross the Himalaya.

The survey involved trekking from Dailekh in the foothills along the royal road to Sinja (see maps), a journey that took nearly a month. A basic survey was made of monuments discovered en route, which included many temples (upper figure), waterpoints (lower figure), dharamsala (guesthouses) and standing stele or pillarstones.

A return visit in 2000 concentrated on monuments in the vicinity of the summer palace at Sinja, with more detailed recording of standing stele and pillarstones unfortunately cut short by the Maoist insurgency.

The survey discovered many new monuments and complexes, as well as re-recording monuments first discovered by Professor Guiseppe Tucci in the 1950s. The survey was a part of wider ongoing research work by Tim Harward (Central Himalaya Project) with Cambridge Archaeology Unit of Cambridge University, and the Institute of Archaeology, UCL.

St Vedast elevation

Elevation of the south wall of St Vedast Church, Foster Lane, City of London, showing coursing by contexts identified during recording of the wall (click on image to enlarge).

Recording work at St Vedast was undertaken by the London Archaeological Research Facility in 1993, and published in London Archaeologist.

This is a recent electronic reworking in CorelDraw of the published pen and ink illustration.

Post-excavation training seminars

In 2008 Urban Archaeology provided training seminars in post-excavation processes to staff at LP Archaeology, a leading archaeological unit in London.

The seminars covered the use of the Bonn archaeological matrix program, subgrouping, spot-dating, grouping, landuse and periodisation using one of their sites as a working example. The theoretical background to the 'Landuse' approach was discussed, and each stage of the post-excavation process was described and demonstrated using site data. The methodological processes, potential problems and workarounds and the implications of using this system for programming post-excavation projects were all discussed.

The seminars were backed up by our own training handouts and wider reading material. This training allowed LP Archaeology to fine tune their database structure and post-excavation methodologies.

Guy Hunt of LP Archaeology said:
"We were very pleased to offer this excellent training in post excavation techniques to our project managers. This is part of our commitment to CPD and training for our staff. The seminars were very well executed and have subsequently proved extremely valuable to us both in project work and on a more general level as we have revised our companywide post excavation practices.

In particular, we wanted our project managers to gain a greater in depth knowledge of the systems that can be used to handle sites with deep and complex stratigraphy. The presentation style was informative and enjoyable. I would heartily recommend this service to any other unit looking to raise awareness and skill levels in post excavation techniques."

Urban Archaeology has developed a series of training resources for excavation and post-excavation processes; these can be used as handouts for one-to-one or group training seminars, as prompts for 'toolbox talks' on technical archaeological subjects, or as general handouts to staff (click on example to enlarge).

Flexibility and knowledge on site

Urban Archaeology demonstrated its fast responses, flexibility and value with its very first sub-contract in August 2008 on a site just outside of the City of London in Hackney.

Following a phone call from Archaeology South-East (ASE), a major south-eastern archaeology unit, Chiz Harward was on site at 8am the next day assisting with an evaluation, and then maintaining an intermittent watching brief on site works: Chiz was able to meet the demands of an evolving site programme and methodology, liaise with ASE, the archaeological consultant and the main contractor, and maintain a watching brief on underpinning, demolition works and site clearance.

Despite the presence of significantly more archaeological remains than had been originally expected, Chiz's detailed knowledge of the local archaeology and years of experience working with construction companies meant that the site works and archaeology could proceed hand-in-hand with the minimum disruption to programme. After the initial evaluation the watching brief evolved seamlessly into a further evaluation for a crane base, and then full excavation of the crane base with a small team of archaeologists from the parent unit.

The site archive for the first package of works was checked and completed on site, and text sections written to ASE's house style for the works supervised by Chiz Harward. This was all delivered to ASE for integration into the final report.

The site had been partially basemented in the Victorian period, but because the street level had been raised by over 1 metre in the 17th-century, archaeological strata survived beneath the basements as well as to their rear. The site was an open area in the Roman period, with a possible road-side ditch and large quarry pits containing waterlogged material. This was sealed by a medieval back-garden soil through which refuse pits had been dug. A masonry boundary wall may be originally medieval in date. The masonry wall was rebuilt with Tudor bricks, associated with a Tudor garden soil and further pitting. The boundary wall continued in use after the 17th-century groundraising, with a large culvert, cesspit and soakaway associated with one of the 17th-century brick houses built on the site.