19 - Archaeology
By AW
Chapter One
Robbie: Hi everyone! I'm Robbie and this is...
Kirsty: I'm Kirsty, and we've completed our course in archaeology at the college, in Tweedsmuir of course!
Robbie:
As you can see, we've cleared the area and already exposed some cables.
Now, we can't go digging these up! Why not?
Cyril: Because the elves might object!
Robbie: Er...
Cyril: It might be dangerous.
Robbie: Yes. But what about elves?
Cyril: You must've heard of elven safety!
Robbie: Thank you Cyril.
Kirsty: And just here, we've got another piece of
cable...
Suzie: But that's just tied up!
Kirsty: Yes, so this we can move! And here's our first find, look carefully, a greenish round thing with a central pin!
And here's more!
Suzie : But what are they?
Kirsty: We've also found old broken roof tile, asbestos based, so we must be careful not to break or crush it!
Paprika: I still don't see...
Kirsty: (triumphantly) This piece has one of these
pins going through it!
Robbie: The brass pins with big heads are to hold
the roof tiles onto the roof in the wind! This house was reroofed in 1938, and
most likely again in 1983, when these were removed! The current roof tiles are
all pinned with a nail through a small hole, then bent over, to hold it down.
Same as these older brass pins.
Cyril: Which wouldn't rust! Everything rusts in
Ness!
Robbie: Exactly! Good thinking Cyril!
Chapter Two
Cyril: What's this then?
Kirsty: This is our first find on the site! It's a filler cap from, we think, a moped or motor scooter!
Cyril: Is the scooter still in the ground?
Robbie: No! This is all we found. If you look carefully you can see the name Vesta on it!
Ragnar: Vesta?
Robbie: Yes. The famous make was Vespa, from Italy,
so we think this was a British version, a copy almost!
Cyril: (excitedly) And you found money!
Kirsty: Yes, that's a silver sixpence, 50% silver!
Cyril: Wow! And this?
Kirsty: That's more modern, but it's from
Australia!
Cyril: Even more Wow!
Chapter Three
Ragnar: What's this? It looks a funny shape?
Robbie: We're not sure if it is anything! It's stone, right at the edge of our dig, so we've uncovered part until we can see if it's important!
Kirsty: Now to wrap up the tour of the site, we've got a selection of pottery here! You can see the way the local people like the blue patterned plates and cups! It's nearly all this type, otherwise the pottery is usually just plain white.
Cyril: And this bottle?
Kirsty: Yes, this is the other main find here. It's
probably a small medicine bottle, brown glass, so not poisonous which would be
blue.
Cyril: Pity it's broken!
Kirsty: Yes, you can find bottles with some of the
contents. But look closely and you'll see it still has the cork on! This will
dry out and shrink, but it should still be stable.
Cyril: Hello, you made it up here then!
Marloch: (nervously) Yes, Cyril! Hello all! I'm
Marloch! I met Cyril down in Steรฒrnabhagh at the Metagama Tattoo!
Kirsty: Yes, and I see he likes Irn Bru!
Cyril: Yes, he likes it so much he's turned bright orange!
The End.
ยฉ 2024 AW.
