The digging of test pits can be a great way of looking for archaeological finds in a built up area.  Test pits can be excavated with minimal disturbance of an area and because of this can be dug in gardens of any size.  They are a useful tool in understanding how occupation in a village has changed the course of time.

The test pits were dug in member’s gardens at different locations in the village. Two test pits were actually dug in the same garden and it will be interesting to if the finds differ between them.  By digging test pits at different locations it enables a picture to emerge of how the village size and habitation has changed.  The sample size for this dig was small.  However the digging of more test pits in the future should help build on the understanding of the layout of Rampton throughout history.

The pits were one metre square and are dug and recorded systematically until the ‘natural’ soil, undisturbed by human activity, is reached, or to a maximum depth of 1.2 metres. Taking it deeper than that would not be safe without widening the pit. The natural soil was reached within that limit in our pits.

The excavations of all pits were recorded in a standard way with each 10 cm layer regarded as a separate context. The test pit records were in a format designed by Carenza Lewis for use in the Higher Education Field Academy digs.