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GEOPARK BLOG

The Origins Dig Diary

7th September 2009

7th September.
Hello there. My name is Jonathan Madge and I have just completed my A-levels and I
am now going to go into further education at the University of Cardiff to study Ancient History and Archaeology. I live locally so to be part of this Excavation is very exciting, it is an opportunity to learn more about what is so close to home and I have learnt so much about each individual process of the archaeological dig from excavating to plotting and sieving to sorting. I am very pleased that even a volunteer, such as myself, with little experience, was given the opportunity to participate in each of the separate stages. Another aspect that I am very impressed with is the helpfulness of every member of the archaeological team who have bent over backwards to help and teach me therefore allowing me to get as much out of this dig as I possibly can.

As for the dig itself, today has been a fairly slow. Overcast weather has not allowed us to dry the sediments that have come out of the wet sieve and boxes of material are beginning to pile up in queue for the sieve. Because this process has been slow, it also affects the sorting process which occurs after the sieving.

One interesting find that did crop up are numerous samples of coprolite (for those who don't know what that it is, it is hyena faeces which are at least 25,000 years old!)
But we have also found two extremely large hyena teeth, which is very interesting indeed. Some large Woolly Rhino bones in the trench have now been further exposed and we are hoping to see them out of the ground within the next few days so we can examine them in more detail.

However, we are all still waiting for the Neanderthal remains and with the days quickly running by we are all just hoping that Kents Cavern is saving what we are especially looking for until the end.



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