Dear reader, hello!
Long time no see… How are you doing? I’ve missed you all!
What happened, Mili, what is going on with the Sheffield Castle excavation results, I hear you ask.
Well… although it might have felt like the story of the castle was on hold and was never to be seen again, we have been very, very busy.
Just like after every long tour, and our band of four performed an 8-hour gig every day for nine weeks, we needed to retreat to our base and gather our thoughts. And this is what we have done since the last time I saw you.
We have stabilised our archive (all the records we made while excavating), digitised it and put together our preliminary stratigraphy of the site. Like we said in our blog no 3, we have processed the finds and the samples. The material was then sent to the specialists, and while we were eagerly awaiting for their analyses and reports, we have digitised the drawings and read a lot (and I mean a lot!) about castles, fortification, moats and bowling greens. We went back to the archive compiled during the previous excavations and compared our findings with Armstrong’s, Himsworth’s, Butcher’s and ARCUS’ remarks. We had numerous meetings with our client, Sheffield City Council, with their advisors and our colleagues from South Yorkshire Archaeology Service and with the colleagues and friends from The University of Sheffield and Friends of Sheffield Castle. We have collected the digital data and superimposed it over the Ordnance Survey maps and the even earlier maps of the site. And after we have received the specialists’ reports, we sat down and made our best shot at assessing the results of our evaluation of the site.
So, this month when Sheffield Castle and I celebrate our fist anniversary, we would like to show you the results of our hard work. Here is the Archaeological Evaluation Post-Excavation Assessment Report for you to read, enjoy, download for free and take as a ‘light’ summer read on your holiday, if you are so inclined (and afterwards ask me as many questions as you like).
What happens next is us sending the suitable material for dating (no, not dinner and dancing), scientific dating – radio carbon, dendro and luminescence dating – and, once again patiently waiting for the results. We will see what the borehole report says and will collate its findings with the general stratigraphy into a deposit model of the site. Based on their recommendations for further work, we will seek full specialist reports on the finds and environmental material. All this will be written up in the final report and the publication.
Yup, it is not over until it is over, my relationship with Sheffield Castle continues… I have always wanted to be with someone much older…
I hope you stay with us on our journey.
Until the radiocarbon results are in and our final report is out (which, I promise, will not take another year), enjoy the summer.
Catch you on the flip side.
