Well, after several alternating weather forecasts for Sunday going from sunny to cloud and rain we decided to risk it and give it a go.
It was dull and slightly damp when we set off but the skies appeared to clear somewhat and it ended up being very sunny indeed!
The only problem was that I'd dressed for cooler weather so I was absolutely boiling!!!
Steve couldn't make this trip, so it was just Rob and I.
The field was cultivated and very dry considering the amount of rain that had passed through.
It was dull and slightly damp when we set off but the skies appeared to clear somewhat and it ended up being very sunny indeed!
The only problem was that I'd dressed for cooler weather so I was absolutely boiling!!!
Steve couldn't make this trip, so it was just Rob and I.
The field was cultivated and very dry considering the amount of rain that had passed through.
It was fairly rough but we thought it was worth surveying, although after four hours Rob had endured enough. I wasn't too bad, having elasticated ankles from several years of playing squash.
We left the field earlier than planned and thought that we'd save it for another day perhaps.
Background, conditions and machine set up.
We surveyed this field for the first time back in April this year and this was our second visit. The cultivation had disturbed several more pieces of C13th to C14th pottery along with a few pieces from later centuries. Only eight metallic artefacts were recovered, possibly because of air in the soil and that we'd lost a little depth due to the rough textured surface.
The eight items consisted of; a sixpence of Elizabeth Ist 1568, a medieval dress hook, a possible purse bar, an early buckle, a silver plated button and what appears to be an iron arrow tip were however recovered. These can be seen here.
The machines were set up with the small coils and using the GMP mode in 12 and 18khz. Rob used "Tracking" and I elected to go for the manual GB set at 80. A couple of times we had to revert to "Fast" as the ferrous contamination was quite high. Talking of contamination, the mineralisation levels were the highest I'd seen for a long while. This too would have a detrimental effect on the penetration depth. The level was indicating at maximum on the scale on several occaisions which caused the Déus to go eerily silent. There was almost a constant background level of mineralisation with the Déus' readout showing anything from one notch upwards.
Funny thing though, there was no coke anywhere to be seen?!?
On the wildlife side of things we did see a stoat, a red kite, a great white egret, a hare and a rat running around the field which disappeared somewhere in the middle of it!
Hopefully we'll be out in full force next weekend going somewhere special for Robs birthday!
The images for the day can be viewed here.
We left the field earlier than planned and thought that we'd save it for another day perhaps.
Background, conditions and machine set up.
We surveyed this field for the first time back in April this year and this was our second visit. The cultivation had disturbed several more pieces of C13th to C14th pottery along with a few pieces from later centuries. Only eight metallic artefacts were recovered, possibly because of air in the soil and that we'd lost a little depth due to the rough textured surface.
The eight items consisted of; a sixpence of Elizabeth Ist 1568, a medieval dress hook, a possible purse bar, an early buckle, a silver plated button and what appears to be an iron arrow tip were however recovered. These can be seen here.
The machines were set up with the small coils and using the GMP mode in 12 and 18khz. Rob used "Tracking" and I elected to go for the manual GB set at 80. A couple of times we had to revert to "Fast" as the ferrous contamination was quite high. Talking of contamination, the mineralisation levels were the highest I'd seen for a long while. This too would have a detrimental effect on the penetration depth. The level was indicating at maximum on the scale on several occaisions which caused the Déus to go eerily silent. There was almost a constant background level of mineralisation with the Déus' readout showing anything from one notch upwards.
Funny thing though, there was no coke anywhere to be seen?!?
On the wildlife side of things we did see a stoat, a red kite, a great white egret, a hare and a rat running around the field which disappeared somewhere in the middle of it!
Hopefully we'll be out in full force next weekend going somewhere special for Robs birthday!
The images for the day can be viewed here.
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