Cousland Big Dig : day 2

A hard hard morning of rain and sleet..  and………  the inevitable ……….!

 Any signs of the greenhouse.? not a sausage.

 neither did we get anything in the garden feature trench.

 However .  lack of evidence is not actually a bad thing, as it does start to expain exactly what did and did not happen there.

It is clear that teh greenhosue did exist, and teh fittings and fragments of wood give mute evidence for it’s construction, but the demolition seems complete.  It is also clear that a massive leveling layer of clay, topped with drainage deposit of mixed soils with limestone fragments then a topsoil covers the whole of teh walled garden.

We open the castle trench and are now hopeful (oh yes)  that the missing side wall can be traced, letting us know the full size of the structure is..

The East Lothian YAC enjoyed the day as well..  So the only way is up!

Cousland Day 1

Well, that was a hard day…  sun rain, sleet, wind, sun, rain, more rain…

and fortunately the folks from AOC archaeology came along to help…  though I have reason to believe that one person will be coming next weekend..  :)  won’t you Gilrean? 

opened up Tr 1 the glasshouse tench…    er….   nuffink so far!   (thanks Midlothian YAC) 

 opened Tr 3 the garden feature …  um…   stoney ground… 

 geofizz in the upper fields…  er…  nothing

 the Detectorists …  something!   though not that much…  but we did get something..  including my fave..  a gun money coin.. Gunmoney is a token coinage issued by James during his Irish campaigns against William III (William of Orange). The coins are made from brass which was salvaged from many sources including church bells, but probably not cannons - from which the name derives.

Gunmoney was a token issue and the intention to redeem it with silver coin following James’s success - the coins (except the crowns) are dated by month as well as year - this was to facilitate the orderly redemption of the brass coinage.  As we are aware ..  things did not go exactly to plan!

 One problem facing James was lack of funds to support the army he headed. James established mints at Dublin and Limerick and issued a token coinage consisting of Crowns, Halfcrowns, Shillings, and sixpence. These were struck in 1689 and 1690, bearing not only the year but also the month of manufacture. The coins were to be redeemed by his followers in Sterling, and with interest, when he re-took the throne. The month placed on the “coins” was to aid him in knowing how long the piece had been held, and what to pay.

They were first struck from metal obtained from obsolete field cannons, thus the term “Gunmoney” - though any metal he could get was fair game, and many were struck using bells, cooking pots, pans, and scrap. Later issues were reduced in size because of this shortage, and many pieces were overstruck on other tokens and coins, as well as struck in pewter - this latter being quite rare today.

The calendar in use at the time was what is called “old style” - or OS - where the new year started on March 26th. Thus, the tokens struck in March 1689 and those struck in March 1690 were actually struck in the same month.

William, installed on the throne of England as William III, invaded Ireland and defeated James at the Battle of Boyne River. He seized the mint at Dublin, eventually demonetizing the token coinage in 1691. The mint at Limerick held out for James well into 1691, and continued to coin “Gunmoney” in its smaller forms until late that year. James fled to France, and died there in exile.

  

Last Day of Council - First Day of Community Project

Well, I give up my council job today.. back to normal… Its not so much going to another job, its just getting rid of one of four!

This means I can concentrate on BAJR, Past Horizons, CHC consultants. Start the Cousland Big Dig tommorrow at 10am…

It is however pouring with rain! oh the joy of digging in Scotland!

will keep you updated day by day!

Past Horizons Magazine - Free and Online

Past Horizons Magazineits free.. its online… it even has video and direct links…

www.pasthorizons.com/magazine
We hope to get better and better! and will do if you have a look and tell us honestly what you think.

You may even have ideas about what to do, some articles? Some projects?

 You can now subscribe (for free)

to be told when the next issue comes out…

Including a retired persons view on digging in Maine… Strange pagan rites in Cornwall… a bit of re-eanctment in Europe and we hope Aerial Archaeology in Jordan… plus all our usual featuers..

go here to subscribe… its free and there are no catches!

http://www.pasthorizons.com/magazine/

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Enjoy.

Reburial for Anglo Saxon remains

About 3,000 skeletons are to be reburied in an Anglo-Saxon ceremony at a North Lincolnshire church where they were discovered almost 30 years ago.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/7283445.stm

A spokesman for English Heritage said the service on Friday evening would be spoken in Anglo Saxon, as a mark of respect.

Thoughts? Act of respect or shameless stunt?

I tend to agree with the concept though… but what about the Neolithic and Bronze Age bodies… do we carry out ceremonies we don’t know in a language we don’t know?

hum……………
 

‘The first royal Aztec tomb ever found’

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/audio/2008/mar/04/jo.tuckman.podcast

 Podcast report:
Jo Tuckman reports from Mexico city where archaeologists believe they have found the funeral chamber of the most powerful Aztec king
Jo Tuckman , guardian.co.uk, Tuesday March 4 2008

Read about it here as well

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/08/070809-aztec-tomb.html

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