LAARC Summer Excavation - Recently Updated Pages

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laarchaeologist — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:34:23 CDT

15/6/07
Welcome to The Home Page for the Museum Of London's Summer Excavation.
This year the Museum's Archaeological Archive (LAARC) are digging Michael Faraday School in Southwark, trying to find remains of the earlier Victorian school as well as the workers' houses that backed on to the original school..
Late last month, we opened an evaluation trench to take a pre-dig peek at what we can expect to find and the results were good: foundations of buildings and pottery rubbish deposits.
We'll be regularly updating these pages and you can keep track of our progress by clicking on the links on the top left of this page.
You can also leave a message by clicking on comments at the bottom of the page
26/6/07
This week we opened the site and children from the school have been learning to be archaeologists, finding bits of pot, brick, animal bone and flint.
Due to heavy rain there will be no one on site on Sunday 1st July 2007
4/7/07
Well into the 2nd week now and all the Michael Faraday classes from Years 1-6 have had a go at being archaeologists. This week we've invited other local schools to dig too.
9/7/07
The dig has come to an end. On Saturday we finished recording and backfilled the trench. We would like to say a big thank you to all the school classes at Michael Faraday Primary who helped us dig & wash finds as well as the other local schools who came. We hope you enjoyed it and learnt about archaeology.

TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THE TWO WEEKS CLICK HERE

View videos of Days 2, 4, 6, 8 & 10 by clicking on the day's page in the box in the top left corner above and view the "Finding Faraday" video on Day 5's page.

Click Here To Learn More About LAARC

Click here to find out more about Michael Faraday School

Days 11, 12 & 13

laarchaeologist — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 06:42:08 CDT

The final days of the dig saw us continue to find archaeology including the discovery of a brick lined channel relating to the worker's houses, which we excavated with only 4 hours left on Friday.
On Saturday, we brought in the yellow digger again to backfill the trench and put back the turf.
Our community excavation for 2007 is now over, however, the finds will now be processed at the museum's archeological archive.
A big thanks to all those that helped us dig and wash finds.
Click here to see photos from the two weeks

Days 9 & 10

laarchaeologist — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 10:23:32 CDT

Despite the strange weather patterns, we're still managing to dig. Local Schools again joined Michael Faraday Classes for sessions in the trench on Tuesday & Wednesday. Artifacts found include a fragment of drain pipe with a maker's inscription, a brick with a maker's stamp, a piece of worked bone made into an apple corer and a Victorian lead pencil, possible used in the 19th Century Schoolhouse?
The trench is starting to get down to the lower levels but most importantly everyone is still finding out lots about archaeology, discovering more about artifacts and enjoying every minute.
See Today's Photos

Days 5 & 6

laarchaeologist — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 09:59:43 CDT

On Friday Michael Faraday Pupils from year 2 & 5 continued to help us with our excavation. There was a rumour going around that Michael Faraday had been buried on the site and today the students of the school with his name made a startling discovery! See the videos below for more.
On Saturday, despite the rain, Rotherhithe Young Archaeologists Club, joined us to see what they could find.

Days 7 & 8

laarchaeologist — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:30:08 CDT

Unfortunately, due to the wet weather on Saturday, Sunday's sessions had to be cancelled as the trench was too muddy and slippery. However, today we were back digging and washing finds.
Michael Faraday Primary School have very kindly opened their gates to other local schools and today they were visited by two of them; Cobourg Primary & The Federation of All Saints.

Days 3 & 4

laarchaeologist — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 10:20:13 CDT

We're now well into the dig and have our first features. The picture on the left shows foundations of a wall with a possible hearth beneath it where the orange brick fragments are.

Almost every class in the school has now had a chance to dig, with even year one getting stuck in at the end of Day 4.

Time Capsual

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:44:57 CDT

I was a teacher at Michael Faraday in the 1980s, and we buried a time capsule somewhere in one of the grassed areas in the playground

Cheryl

Days 1 & 2

laarchaeologist — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 11:20:41 CDT

So we've started digging and with the help of years 5 6 & 4 , we've started to uncover our first finds as well as some possible features which need further investigation over the next few days.
View Photos From Day 2

Archaeological Evaluation Trench

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:39:09 CDT

View Pictures From The Evaluation:

Opening The Trench

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 11:37:18 CDT

Hooray! The Site is open! On Saturday, LAARC staff and volunteers opened up a 10m x 15m trench. Having taken off approximately 70cm of soil, some possible features are starting to reveal themselves.
Take a look at what we did: