Following a fortnight helping Malcolm volunteering on an Archaeology dig, excavating two trenches in the Scottish Borders, and writing a diary of each day, I felt the need to draw to try and process some of the incredible experience.
This is the first of my sketchy drawings.
It was more of an emotional response than an accurate diagramatic depiction. And I wanted to start before the memories began to fade.
A close up of the first feature found – near the centre of the trench – the rim of an upturned burial pot from the Bronze age (around 4000 years old). The pieces made a circle – as above.
A close up of the second feature found – a round-ish pile of cremated bones which had been covered, and preserved, by a large flat stone. These bones hadn’t been seen for 4000 years. Quite something to get your head around. And it provoked a lot of in depth thinking – as mentioned in my second response portfolio post.
A close up of the third feature – all within a few feet of each other – this time there were many sizeable pot/ urn pieces. I’m not sure why I made them so red in this picture. They weren’t so bright in real life – more like the colour of the surrounding soil. The soil changed at the ‘cut’ – where the original diggers had dug a hole and then infilled it with a different soil. The ochre colour here representing the silty clay which demarcated the edge of the burial ‘pit’.
