Another successful day

The sun continued to shine most of the day and work is progressing quite well. Though the number of volunteers who actually turned up was a little disappointing.

Jon's team uncovered a good sized area and the model is in reasonable condition  with just a small amount of root damage.

Our larger trench progressed more slowly with heavily damaged areas and dense roots making the work difficult in places. However the problem areas are beginning to be resolved and the features do match up with contemporary air photos.

At the back of a row of model houses on the northern edge of Messines,  cleaning revealed the back door of one house had been included with a trench leading to it.

As the soil was peeled back this feature developed into a series of trenches leading to cellar entrances of each property in the block. This matches exactly with the 1917 trench map and air photos,  showing the attention to detail in building the terrain model.



Our team and volunteers all had an enjoyable day, so much so that the additional hours have been pledged. But we are still short of labour on site so if you would like to be part of this unique project we would welcome your assistance. No experience is necessary,  if you would like to learn about archaeology we would be pleased to teach you the basics.