The History and Archaeology Notebook

Google has added a new twist to its popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.

Google has reconstructed the sprawling city - inhabited by more than one million people as long ago as AD320.

Users can zoom around the map to visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the centre of the Colosseum or swoop over the Basilica.

Researchers behind the project say it adds to five centuries of knowledge.

"This is another step in creating a virtual time machine," said Bernard Frischer of the University of Virginia, which worked with Google on the Roman reconstruction.

"The project is a continuation of five centuries of research by scholars, architects and artists since the Renaissance, who have attempted to restore the ruins of the ancient city with words, maps and images," he said.

Also involved was Past Perfect Productions, which reconstructs archaeological and historical sites through virtual reality.

Joel Myers, the firm's chief executive, said: "Cultural heritage, although based in the past, lives in the present, as it forms our identity.

"It is therefore our responsibility to ensure its conservation, to nourish it and make it accessible, with the objective of promoting global understanding. Ancient Rome in 3D is a major step towards this goal," he added.

Ancient Rome is the first historical city to be added to Google Earth. Google's blog said the model contains more than 6,700 buildings, with more than 250 place marks linking to key sites in a variety of languages.

"Whether you are a student taking your first ancient history class, a historian who spends your life researching ancient civilisations, or just a history buff, access to this 3D model in Google Earth will help everyone learn more about ancient Rome," said Bruce Polderman, Google Earth 3D production manager.

Information bubbles pop up on more than 250 sites in the ancient city

Within ancient Rome there are some 200 buildings scholars know a lot about - classified as Class 1 -which Google says have been rendered as faithfully as possible.

The 3D models are based on a physical model of the city called the Plastico di Roma Antica.

The model was created by archaeologists and model-makers between 1933 to 1974 and housed in a special gallery in Rome's Museum of Roman Civilisation.

The new map was unveiled at an event in the Italian capital, and the modern day Mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, praised the project.

"It's an incredible opportunity to share the stunning greatness of ancient Rome, a perfect example of how the new technologies can be ideal allies of our history, archaeology and cultural identity," Mr Alemanno said.

More than 400 million people have downloaded Google Earth since it was launched in June 2005.

 

Archaeologist David Connolly has returned as a team member in the Jerash Hinterland Survey (Jordan) where they are looking for ancient tombs. Follow his story on his blog  - he is making a daily video (courtesy of You Tube) of their progress.

Well, today was the last day and all digging was completed and all that was left was the sad and backbreaking task of backfilling the trenches . Valerie made it to site today and Rod gave a talk on the history of the site and I hope to answer many of the burning questions (ie, Why did they build a castle there? Was it a castle or a manor house? When was it built? Who lived there? etc etc) in my round up post!

The last job - some last minute section drawing in Trench 2

Trench 1 backfilling - 2 hours later, it's done!


Trench 2 backfilling - they've got an extra 3 tonnes to put back in.

Nothing more to say for the moment - a very sad day indeed, but we may be back for a second season - who knows? I'll be doing a round-up post some time next week when I've got all my information. In the meantime - here's some final words from the Olivers Mound Dig, which wouldn't have happened if it were not for many main driving forces: the Shrawley & District Local History Society, and all the effort that Valerie and Rod put in to get it going, the Heritage Lottery Fund for seeing the potential of the site and putting up the cash, Archaeological Investigations for their valuable geophysics and earthwork survey of the site (and the provision of Dale!), AOC Archaeology (Chris) for directing and overseeing the professionalsim of the dig, the Earth Heritage Trust for providing an insight to the geology of the area, the Forestry Commission, who have helped enormously with access and a promise to keep the mound clear and last but not least, it couldn't have happened without a great team of volunteers, a great bunch of people, the hard work and dedication without which this dig would not have been the success that it was. A round of applause I think. So here are a few final photo moments from the last day on site:

Valerie on site inspecting the findings.


Hazel posing for a photo in the HLF T shirt.


Team from Trench 1 - Tina, Terry, me and Hazel

 
The main team on the last day (Chris taking the photo).
Back: Paul, Dave, Tina, Terry, Rod and Clare
Front: Hazel, me, Rollo and Dale

A final thank you to all those volunteers who came and helped out, from picking up a trowel and a shovel, to washing some finds:

Chris C (AOC)
Dale (Arch Investigations)
Clare (won the prize for best digger of the dig )
Dave (prizewinner for find of the dig with some nice green glazed roof tile)
Vicky
Hazel
Paul
Rod (Treasurer of the Society)
Rollo
Tina
Carol
Clare's Mum
Jenny
Neil
Simon (GPS - Arch Investigations)
And Sam!
Oh, and me. Back to sitting in an office on Monday. Probably best to let my muscles recover for a few days 

Bye for now x

The Mound after we have all left. Nothing to see here, move along...

Hello!

Sorry this is a day late, but went to see the man himself last night. Best quote of the film (this isn't a spolier) 'If you want to be a good archaeologist, kid, stay out of the library' or somesuch. Too right. So here is a gratuitous pic of the man himself.

Indy and Mutt come on site to take a look at Trench 1 - 'yep - definetely some early Medieval walls in there.' Yes!

Now. Moving on. Well, this was quite a sad day in that it was the last day of digging, Friday being the 'clear up and backfill' day. In Trench 1, we did a preliminary clean of the trench for the photos, exposing the possible two phases of walling (a tower and a curtain wall?)  - Masterman was clearly wall chasing and we are grateful he left them in.

The final Trench 1 photo - possibly two phases of an east/west (left/right) tower wall - is the square area below that a buttress?

The west-facing section of Trench 1

Trench 2 was in much the same position, although the final 1m extra slot was being taken out and a small pebbled surface was exposed in the north side and then a few dressed stones were found.

The pebbled surface to the north of the extension to Trench 2.


The final Trench 2 shot.

The EDM was taken out so that Hazel and I could plot the exact position of the trenches to the Ordnance Survey grid and exact heights above sea level. Simon from Archaeological Investigations had already given us two temporary benchmarks with his GPS last week.

EDM Survey - got to know where your trenches are!

We were also treated today by some lollies courtesy of Clare's Mum, a truly wonderful woman. We enjoyed them throuoghly and was just the thing we needed after some hard graft.

Nommmmmmmm

So, the end of the excavation is nigh. This week has gone so quickly and 'Day 11' will be a complete day of clearing up and getting everything cleared, bagged up, and put in the right place. And Valerie, the president of the Society, is coming to site tomorrow.  Valerie and Rod have been the main driving forces behind getting this dig to happen for the Society and it has taken almost 2 years of paperwork, form filling, meetings and launch meetings and even more paperwork to make it happen  and all the team are indebted to the pair of them for making this happen, making it such a great experience and getting to the bottom of the Olivers Mound story.

Last daily blog post tomorrow, although I will be doing a round-up after that to answer some of the burning questions (with a little help from my Dad and Rollo!).

See you tomorrow x

Well, here we are at Day 9 and there's only really one day of excavation left really before the backfilling starts on Friday. Quite sad, really - this week has gone extremely fast. However, today was the wettest day (if you don't count the rain off on Monday afternoon). It was also boys versus the girls as Terry was relegated to Trench 2 for the morning whilst us girls finished off in Trench 1.

Progress? All the excavating in Trench 1 has been completed now, and all it needs tomorrow is a final clean, photograph and to finish the plan and section and make sure all our written record is up to date. As for interpretation, I may save that for the end (she procrastinated) although we have certainly got at least 2 (if not 3) walls, which may form the corner of the original tower and adjoining curtain wall. Given our timescale, we have only really had time to re-excavate  Masterman's backfill (he certainly left enough finds behind) and exposed the walls that he must have exposed (we have no primary records for what Masterman found) and see how his interpretation of an octagonal corner tower stands up.


Hazel finishing off the final bit of excavation in the north-east side of the trench  - we have finally got down to a gravel layer (possibly the natural) in the south-east side (where the finds bag is).

In Trench 2, we have checked the natural is indeed the natural by taking a small sondage in one corner (it is). We have also extended the trench by 1m to the east to see if we can find anything more of note. So far, we have got down to the tile layer that was discovered in Days 4 & 5  and found some glazed roof tile. This may be the find of the dig, although there was a quite remarkable jawbone from Trench 1 as well.

All hail the mighty jawbone.


The boys muck in and start geting through the Trench 2 extension.


Back down to the tile layer, carefully being excavated by Rod and Rollo.

We also had a visit today from Tim Yarnold from the Forestry Commission (on whose land Olivers Mound sits) who have been extremely helpful in arranging access to the site and the clearance of the site for all the surveys and the excavation.

Chris gives Tim Yarnold the lowdown.

Indiana Jones tomorrow night. And the weather tomorrow is - for no rain! Huzzah.

Hi there,

Can't believe there's only 3 days left! Overcast today, but no rain, I think it was all saving itself up for tomorrow . Anyhow - Trench 1 progress. Going down and down to fully excavate what Masterman dug in the 1920s and we seem to have a very complex line of walls that we need to get our heads around if we are to make sense of it all. In the east side of the trench, the end of Masterman's trench seems to be appearing as the apparent 'new' or previously unexcavated subsoil appears to have been cut and backfilled. I have also today taken the rest of the trench (almost) down to the 'new' subsoil and yet another line of stones has appeared (see below). What to make of it all!

Tina and Hazel planning the stone walls in Trench 1

Trench 1 progress - note the 'square' area of stones to the centre of the trench that I have to finish exposing tomorrow. Also, the white patch is not mortar as I first thought, but a white limestone.

Trench 2 found no new archaeology and we have finally got down to the natural gravels. Dale is going to take a small sondage through it just to check, but with 3 days left there may be a scope to extend the trench and see if we find anything else nearby. No finds that appear earlier than early Medieval as yet.

Trench 2 down to the natural. Notice where the tile spread came in in the section.

Weather check: Oh dear. Waterproofs again tomorrow.

Well, it was a wet one today, as I'm sure everyone will agree. A bit damp all day really, but about 3.30pm, the heavens really opened and we weren't going to get much acheived after that. So what progress?

Trench 1 is exposing more and more stones that look like walls. We are probably still digging down through Masterman's redeposited subsoil and rubble backfill, although we are definetely geting in situ walls coming in. More finds - lots more animal bone and a little pottery.

Progress in Trench 1 just before lunch. Still some rubble to take off in the middle, but some definete walls coming in. The east/west wall just to the right of the horizontal (left/right) ranging pole could possibly be a corner as the edge is tooled on both sides - there is also definetely a second course below it too, which you can just see.

Rod and Hazel sorting out some paperwork.

In Trench 2, we are still going down and down into the orange depsit. No more signs of any bits of castle yet!

Progress in Trench 2 - they have definetely gone down much further than the deposits in Trench 1 - you can see in teh section the level of the tile spread exposed at the end of last week.

So, because of the weather, lunch was in the gazebo with the rain lashing down about us. And! We have a trip to see the new Indiana Jones film on Thursday evening in Kidderminster (see trailer below, or follow the link here). I've been taking loads of video of the dig too and have been struggling with getting movie maker to work, so hopefully by the week-end I will have some you tube videos up on their site to have a look at the dig in action.

Let's hope the weather is less damp tomorrow, the BBC weather check says it's going to be between 13 - 19 degrees and there's no raindrops on their cloud, so here's hoping.

In the gazebo - Dave, Rod, Hazel, Rollo, Claire Chris and new recruit Sam in front.

A rather damp walk back...

INDIANA JONES TRAILER to get you in the mood.........

Well, it was very quiet yesterday. I went to site and the only people who showed up were a couple with a dog who didn't even know Olivers Mound was there! So I took the opportunity to wash some of the finds from Trench 1.

Pottery from Trench 1, including a nice rim sherd, probably from a shallow bowl.


Me, marking up some finds.

Washed one of the roof tiles and I am inebted to Rollo for providing more of an insight into where these stone roof tiles came from. These tiles were not local, as with the rest of the sandstone for constructing the castle seemed to be, and consisted of a fine grained greenish-red sandstone with small proportions of muscovite mica, which Rollo has surmised is 'St Maughans Formation' and probably came from Bromyard or Herefordshire areas, possibly as far as the Welsh Border.

A tile from the Trench 2 tile spread.

We were soon joined by Rod and Rollo and we had a small tour of the small quarry to the east of the site from which the castle stone would have come, which was excellent as I had missed it on Day 1 (Monday). However, it was clear there was a lot of geology going on (I don't pretend to understand it all, but Rollo is best to explain!).

The small sandstone quarry.

The base of the quarry is eroded away because of the presence of a lake here some 26 million years ago, with layers denoting times of flash floods, stronger and less stronger current and areas of dry and wet. Obviously, it is the smoother stone layer above that was used for quarrying and the cut marks from where blocks of stone were removed in trenches are still present on the face.

Medieval cutmarks still in the sandstone.


Rollo at the quarry - note the layers of below the main quarrying stone depicting events of millions of years ago

Despite warnings that the weather was going to be bad, it was one of the hottest days so far this week. Not so great now, though - will be bringing my waterproofs to site tomorrow!

HI there,

2 days for the price of one. Excellent weather so far. Threatened with rain, but only a very light sprinkling on Friday afternoon. So what's been happening?

In Trench 1, the possible wall and stone dumps were photographed, a quick plan, and then we started to dig through the stone dumps  - carefully  - to see if any more wall features were coming through. It looks like there was a couple of possible wall suspects (not sure what is going on yet) but there is definetely an east-west aligned wall of some sort. Looked like Masterman left some of his discovered castle wall foundations in. We are just at the point where we are finishing the clean-up of the stone dumps to expose the features below  - oh, and also getting rid of some very large tree roots!

Terry and Hazel do a plan of Trench 1 - note tree going through middle of trench!

Trench 1 at the end of Day 5 - you can clearly see in the far (north) side of the trench some wall alignments. The foundations for a tower? Or later Victorian remodelling to make a folly from the remains?

Trench 2. Well! After digging down almost half a metre, a spread of roof tile throughout the whole of the trench was discovered (archaeology at last!). Such was the eagerness depth of the archaeology, Dale had to be brought in with the mattock. We even saw site boss Chris with a shovel in his hand (sorry, no photos of that, shutter speed wasn't fast enough).

Dave and Vicky expose the roof tile spread


All spanky and clean - and right across the trench.

Action man.

The tiles themselves are a greenish stone, not local, probably from Hereford (must get more specific info on this from Rollo) and are sort of coffin-shaped, some with holes in the top where nails would have held the tiles in place and chamfered edges where the tiles would have lain across one another.

Close-up of one of the tiles from Trench 2.

The tile spread has all been taken away now, and all the tiles retained - especially the pieces with the holes in them - and Rod from the Society is going to quantify the finds. The tiles at the moment seem to be going down onto an orange sandy surface, although a sporadic cobbled surface has just appeared in the north side of the trench. More to explore on Monday.

So there we are. Simon from Archaeological Investigations dropped into site today with his wonderful Trimble GPS to put up a couple of grid pegs and trench positions to ensure our survey was located within the existing survey and the Ordnance Survey co-ordinates and OD heights.

Oh - and I have been playing with the Society's new camcorder and have lots of footage - and as soon as I work out how you tube works will put something up. A project for Sunday perhaps.

I am on site on Saturday, in case any interested parties turn up. Will maybe do a bit of trowelling, but also some finds washing in the gazebo if the weather turns a bit rainy as I have been told it will! Core diggers return on Bank Holiday Monday, where I expect we will get some more visitors.

Toodlepip.

Sorry this post is a day late, but couldn't get onto the Internet last night. Well, a visit by the local constabulary this morning  - no, they were just interested in the site and bizarrely enough loads of people had been going into the police station to ask about it.

Dale explaining himself to the local bobby...

Trench 1 progress has been made with clearing more debris off the top north-erast corner to expose a more level surface than the rest of the stone layer in the trench which appears to be a stone dump, possibly associated with Masterman's original excavations. Lots of cleaning back to expose the rest of the stones in this trench - and the odd bit of sawing of large tree roots! Lots more finds, including a nice rim sherd (the right date - early medieval),lumps of mortar, tile, some slag and at least a couple of nails. We're still in the subsoil, though...

Terry and Hazel exposing the flatter 'surface' of stones to the north east of Trench 1

Still very little in Trench 2 - there has been an almighty shifting of soil today though (look at that depth on the left hand side) and a gravelly layer has turned up in the south-east corner.

There's a geophysics anomoly (aka collapsed 13th century castle) under there somewhere!

Wildlife seen on site today: a sloe worm and a frog.