Blog: Shrewsbury Castle dig diary: Day 6 – 23 July 2022
It may not be often that a day on a dig starts off, on top of a Medieval castle motte ,with a debate among visitors about the chance of a bone belonging to a dragon or not! The more sensible suggestion is that of a cattle bone; however, the photos before and after cleaning below are open to your interpretation.
Mystery bone before a good scrubbing.
Mystery bone after a hose down.
The Shrewsbury Castle team welcomed over 700 of the public to the castle today who were keen to see the excavation work in progress. We enjoyed telling them the story of what has been uncovered so far. Trench 4 outside the castle walls has probably given up any secrets it is willing to share now. However, digging continues in the three trenches on top of the motte with many more finds. These include some potentially 11th-13th century cooking pot and some later medieval green glazed pottery, which proved a favourite with our visitors. It is a pleasure to be able to share our enthusiasm for what we have found, so thank you to all who came to say hello today.
A very small selection of finds waiting to be cleaned
We were also very pleased to welcome our sponsors from the Castle Studies Trust, who very kindly funded this year’s dig. We were thrilled to show them the curtain wall investigations and the progress that we are making with post holes and other features on the motte so a big thank you once again for sponsoring us.
Dr Baker and Dr Capper give a tour to our sponsors at Castle Studies Trust.
Scripted by Kelly Anderson, Archaeology and Heritage Student, on behalf of students at the Shrewsbury Castle Dig 2022
