Lost and found – field archeology

On a cold day in March Stuart Burges, from Time and Tide Museum, rocked up with some stalwart home educated families to study the archeology of the field. I had no idea what adventures would come my way, owning a field, and this was one such.

Stuart came through Felicity, aka the Crusader, who’s son Benny, used to come to Kinda Forest School, and she not only introduced and administered the day but also nourished me half way with delicious hot bean stew. The dogs were popular, with one family adopting them, and with Rufio joining there were 4 black and whites in the field.

Stuart took half the group field walking, which involved getting our eye in to see pieces of flint cut, not by the tractor/plough, but by bronze age people, fashioning tools, tools such as skinning or cleaning or cutting or striping bark of hazel to form arrows, etc. Here is one Stuart found on one of his reconnaissance trips. Michael came and walked the field for a short while, but it was a cold north wind.

The find of the day was an core stone (find the right name!), one which was used to chip others off it. I think was found by Felicity, but the last great effort also goes to her. Recognised by expert Noah, it was indeed a piece of a plough, or was it a Crusadors sword.

Here’s the story. Paul Osbourne gave me his find, a silver coin of a George, and he instructed me how to clean it, with tin foil and some human spit. I never got the chance. Because by the time I got home, it had disappeared from my pocket, which i discovered had a hole in it. So it was once lost while journeying across this field, may be 300 years ago. Found again March 2023, it was lost again. Twice lost. Probably the previous coat pocket 300 years ago also found a hole.

I also learned about thimbles. I had wondered why so many were found, there appeared to be much sewing going on. But not, I understand now that the women gleaners wore thimbles on all their fingers, to protect them from the repetitive hand gleaning, and potential damage with rough ends of straw getting under their nails piercing their fingers.