As promised, we did our best with excavating what we think might be a tipper wagon, but it’s wedged under a couple of boulders so we can’t get it out. We’re also beginning to face facts that it might not be a wagon at all. But what is it? We need your help! Ragnar thinks it might even be an old wartime car. Here’s the latest picture of it:

Rusted wreck of a … a … ?
Today we also began to take stock of the range of assorted rusty metal at the base of the quarry. But don’t get too excited: we’re talking about half a dozen lumps of rust. We photographed them and plotted them on the map.

Ragnar plotting the finds on a map
When it comes to archaeologically examining a landscape such as a quarry, the archaeologist begins to think about artefacts in a different way. The land around us is covered in shards and lumps of stone. If these were removed from the quarry face by the prisoners, is every stone an arefact?

Gilly holds a potential ‘artefact’ of the quarry
Ideally we would like to clean the area in front of the quarry face and, indeed, the quarry face itself, but at present it is covered in moss, tree stumps, and foliage. Would we find anything? Maybe and maybe not. Marek would like the area to be a place for visitors, as part of the visit to the camp, but more work is needed for that to happen. This is how the area looks at present:

Ragnar, the ever-willing blog model, poses for a photo in front of the quarry
So our short season at the quarry has been useful in terms of getting us thinking about how to examine such a landscape, how to characterise it archaeologically, and how we might think differently about such a space and its artefacts and the way they link to the camp. And that in itself is worthwhile.
(Blog post by Gilly Carr)