Lexi Diggins undertook an NLHF Positive Action Placement at Teffont, focusing on worked stone. She is an MA student from the University of London, Birkbeck. Here she writes about how she became involved with Teffont and how the project has increased her confidence and knowledge of archaeology, and in particular worked stone.
The first time I heard about Teffont was from a text I received in July from Dr. Philippa Walton, a former tutor of mine at Birbeck. Although she didn’t teach any of my modules we got to know each other during the blisteringly hot field days with MOLA on the Thames foreshore last year. Dehydration and UK transport woes are great for bonding.
The timing of the text about Teffont seemed serendipitous. I’d not long started a life changing antibody therapy for a very serious type of asthma that had seen me seriously ill and I wanted to get back to work. I got straight on the phone to my hospital and started arranging for my injections to arrive early so I could take them down with me to Salisbury, where our accommodation would be. At this stage I didn’t know if I would even get an interview and I didn’t even know where this mysterious place of Teffont was.
Me taking a quick break from stone processing. In the barrow sit several worked stone door jambs.
Once I knew had an interview, I wondered about whether I could offer them enough to be a useful member of the project. I stood in my kitchen tracking back through my experience which consisted of some intensive osteoarchaeology with MOLA at Spitalfields, albeit decades ago, and some more recent studying in the form of my archaeology certificate at Oxford and MA in Archaeological Practice. Yup that was all fine, but did I have enough field experience to be useful? Just a few weeks with CFA in Milton Keynes at an Iron Age/early Roman site a few years ago and then about a week of post-ex with AOC; both roles pretty much curtailed by COVID.
In both places I’d been supported by patient archaeologists, but I just hadn’t clocked that much time. I was reassured by David, Denise and Mike during my interview that one of the main aims of Teffont was to teach all aspects of the basics of field archaeology and to give more experienced people the opportunity to learn more about one aspect of it.
It became clear that Teffont was a project where I could learn without limits, ask questions and not feel worried about doing so. Despite feeling nervous about travelling down to Salisbury to live and work with a bunch of strangers for a month I managed to organise myself quickly and I set off down the road in my very old mini, praying it didn’t breakdown.
I’ve read all the previous blogs about Teffont, I’d like to reassure everyone that, well, nothing has changed, and everything has changed.
What hasn’t changed is the welcoming and supportive atmosphere. Not only that but the obvious passion that emanates from David and his team of educators and supervisors. I can’t emphasise enough the absolute dedication to archaeology and archaeologists this man has! You can’t help but be inspired.
In fact, there were so many inspirational characters at Teffont. Whether it was Denise, who somehow managed to balance childcare of 9 month old Hazel (duties shared with David) and her job as head of Post-Excavation in the barn, Alix a professional metal detectorist and archaeologist sweeping our site for metal finds and getting on with the archaeology with equal zeal, or Mike Emra - a Teffont veteran who also seemed to possess an almost spiritual like dedication to uncover the bottom of his well/spring feature on the site. He’s a man of few words whilst he worked, but I was grateful for that when he happened to be the only person to witness me trip over my bootlace and end up spread eagled in the clay next to the trench on our last day on site.
Our last day of excavation on the site assembled around our Spring feature to hear from Mike Emra.
Then there was Ewan, a zooarchaeologist who supervised my pod in the early days. He taught me how to trowel with a little more finesse and imbued us all with his mystical love of cattle. It was during these early days in the month that an opportunity arose to manage the stone from the site. Rather spontaneously I found myself volunteering to do this, without much understanding of what it might entail. I figured that this was an environment for learning and I should grasp the opportunity to learn something new from beginning to end.
Thus began the ‘stone people’ as we became known. David explained that I would be working with a student from Cardiff for a week and then there would be other volunteers joining too. Our weekly teach ins were delivered from a modest but extremely knowledgeable Dr Kevin Hayward, an archaeological building materials specialist.
Dr.Kevin Hayward explaining how he categorised our stone
I’m not sure what he thought about having to get such compete stone novices up to speed, but he dealt with us with graciousness and patience. He taught us about the local geology (very unique to our part of Wiltshire in the Nadder valley), he explained where all the local and not so local quarries were located, he introduced us to the twin joys of hitting stone very hard with a hammer and using a handheld loupe to get up close to the broken bit.
There is, of course, a very important archaeological reason for doing this, but still there is a rather freeing childlike happiness to being able to smash a bit of rock and then see inside it. He also inducted us into the very helpful way to let people down gently when they came to us reverently carrying ‘special stones’ they had found in their trench.
Being permitted to learn a process end to end like this was incredibly satisfying and reminded me that I had very useful transferable skills from my previous career. I knew how to come up with a workable process quickly, I could handle doing the active stuff and the inevitable paperwork that comes with the doings. I liked engaging with different people, I enjoyed learning and could take information in quite quickly and I liked passing that knowledge on.
I began to understand the stone and to see the important archaeological stories unfolding within it. Why were the previous inhabitants of the Glebe site using different stone for different purposes? Why was there so much non-local stone? Why were some of these not so local stones so ridiculously weighty? Why were the most worked pieces in a very white bleached chert? What on earth were these people doing with so much stone, and were we right about the stone we had put aside as being worked?
Hopefully by the time Dr Hayward writes his stone report we will have some good interpretations if not definitive answers to these questions. I was coming up with my own theories based on the evidence we were all revealing day by day on site. Although that seems a banal thing to be excited about, it is rare to be in the position to learn so deeply and be so involved with one aspect of a site.
Even Richard the landowner mucked in with us and became a temporary member of the ‘stone people’; a more enthusiastic person in this role I have yet to come across. Then there was the ever-patient Ruby who supervised me later when I took a break from the stone and went back into the trench. My lovingly excavated post hole is in the Teffont record.
We also got the chance to spend half a day at Wessex Archaeology, which was useful because we spoke to archaeologists engaged in all facets of the job including pottery and bone specialists, environmental processing technicians, artists, marine archaeologists and archive and records experts.
Aside from our morning learning sessions in the barn and the fascinating behind the scenes tour of Wessex Archaeology, another opportunity I enjoyed was the announcement that we would be visited by local groups who we would have the chance to share our archaeology with.
Me waiting to greet visitors for our site open day
I helped to host two groups from the young archaeologists club, they were of varying ages and I decided the best way to get them interested in our ancient stone was to give them the power of the hammer! It worked a treat and served as a way to draw them into the archaeology of the site without being too dry or academic.
It was also great to see that some local young carers visited the site and were able to experience some unique respite. There were many groups who were able to gain something from the archaeology and that might be one of the most special things about the project, apart from the actual archaeology.
As I write I have been back from Teffont for exactly 10 days and I miss the people, the place and my work on the site. I miss the students who were my car share passengers to and from the site, I even miss the gleeful critiquing of my Italian style parking skills. I miss the people I shared the kitchen with and the people who I worked on the stone placement with. Shout out to Keshlan and Adam for putting up with my deep belief that way too many of our stones were ‘worked’ and a thank you to Lucy, Malachi and Jess who helped towards the end when it felt like there was no end to the stone. Jess deserves a special thanks for helping digitise our stone record sheets and interpret all our mud-covered terrible handwriting.
Getting to know the rest of Wiltshire outside of our dig.
We became like a family for a month with the shared goal of doing our best on site to uncover the stories of ancient Teffont and to enjoy our time away as much as possible. We adventured near and far when we were off duty.
Inevitably as each season finishes more is learned, previous assertions are re-examined, new questions emerge and the story shifts. Whilst the positive working ethos at Teffont remains, new people with refreshingly diverse backgrounds bring change with their ideas and perspectives. Everyone has their own Teffont experience and their own interpretations.
The various archaeological sites that make up the Teffont project remain some of the most fascinating and enigmatic among the Romano-British ritual landscape. Long may this project continue to reveal its secrets and continue to produce well rounded inclusive archaeologists.