June 7-11, 2010
Corscadden Park
Hunting for the Brick Kiln Part II
Hunting for the Brick Kiln – Part 2 is currently taking place between 7-11 June, 2010. Where the 2009 Dig began in the north-west corner of Corscadden Park (in the corner where the creek passes under Anzac Avenue) and ran south along Humpybong Creek, this time the Dig has started in the same place but is running up the hill toward the Bay. Day One – Monday 7 June, 2010.
The day started well with the location marker from the last dig being found almost immediately. This was quickly expanded into a 15m x 5m pit.
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| Digging the Pit | Measuring the Site |
By lunch, several ‘features’ had been found. A feature is an indication in the soil that it has been disturbed by human activity and is indicated by the letter ‘F’. Three stratagraphic layers, or units, had also been determined. Stratagraphic Units (SU) are numbered ‘I’ (one) for the topmost layer and then sequentially numbered as they are lower beneath the surface layer of SUI. Generally speaking, in arcaheology, the lower the layer, the older it tends to be. In the case of this pit, the ‘top’ layer has proven to be land fill and to be the section closest to the creek.
In this case Feature I was recognised as being a defunct service trench in SU I, which runs in a line between two electricity poles which are no longer in use. F2, in SU II (two), is a patch of earth that includes yellow and black bits – indications that it has possibly been burnt . F3, in what is thought to be SU III (three), is definitely burnt earth which contains charcoal and burt clay – exactly what was being searched for!
F4, in SU III, was a small square of loose white soil which was suggested to be a pet grave, and F5 was another patch of orange soil nearby.
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| Could this be a discovery? | ”Too much glass….” |
Further investigation of F3 in the afternoon, however, included too many pieces of glass to match our time frame of 1824.
Leading Archaeologist, Jon Prangnell, assessed the glass as being too recent, and, additionally, said it was unlikely that the amount of glass, and type of glass, found would have been present at a convict kiln.
At the end of Day One there are more questions than answers… stay tuned for another exciting day in Corscadden Park!
If you would like to see the Dig in progress feel free to come down to the Park between 9am and 4pm where you are welcome to view the Dig from outside the fence line.
