Excavations on the features south of the gully have been devoid of finds with only a few worked flints being found. Samples for sieving and organic remains have been taken, but the indications are that these features may belong to the Bronze Age occupation of the field and may be potentially important to our understanding of the very complex settlement of Blacklands. (Below)

Geophysical survey has been taking place in the field to the north of the site, where little has been found on the surface, but it was felt that the field ought to be surveyed in order to be sure that the settlement did not extend to the north. Early indications on the resistance survey suggested that there may be a feature on the northern field boundary, next to a small wood as a rectilinear boundary of high resistance was shown here. A number of keen students wanted to investigate the feature with a test pit located within the rectangle. The test pit proved that the features was natural stone, much to their disappointment, but the exercise was valuable as it showed that natural geology can be easily misinterpreted and warns us to be wary of jumping to conclusions on geophysical survey results alone.

The 4 students laboured very hard in the sweltering heat in the latter stages of the week to find only natural stone outcrops under about 75cm of natural clay, they were to be congratulated for sticking at it and testing the geophysical survey.

The students have been getting to grips with the magnetometer in the same field, but the results, so far have been disappointing as little can be seen on the survey. We had hoped that further field boundaries may have extended into the neighbouring field, but the indications are that the land to the north may not have been cultivated in ancient times. (the picture below shows the magnetometer in action.)

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