As my internship moves into its last few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to swap my computer and nice clean clothes for toothbrushes, rubber gloves, a huge amount of mud, and clothes covered in a film of dirt! Recently, I’ve been working within a really important area of the company that I hadn’t previously experienced- post-excavation or ‘post-ex’. This general term encompasses all manner of different elements involved in the analysis of what has been found or recorded on site. I’ve really enjoyed finding out more about this side of Wessex’s operations and it’s been interesting to place the experience I’ve had on archaeological sites within the broader context of what archaeology is as a whole and why what happens on site is important.
The first part of my post-ex experience was working in the Finds departments doing some cleaning. The idea of sitting for long periods of time cleaning mud off fragments of pot and bone (and actually, as happened to me a couple of times, trying to clean mud off what turns out to be another lump of mud) may not sound appealing, but the activity actually involves a good deal of attention as you aim to carry it out both quickly and carefully whilst trying to keep the objects intact! I really enjoyed this and found that the time went by very quickly as I entered a trance like state of concentration! As someone who has only really seen finds either covered in soil on site or in a museum, being part of this process was a really satisfying experience- so thanks to the Finds team for letting me help out!
Eleanor