The article that is chosen is called The Scientist’s Garden by Kate Ravilious. The article is about an excavations in an English garden that displays evolution of culture. The site is located in a small town called Berkeley in Gloucestershire, Southwest England. A church, a manor, and a castle sits on top of the hill at the site and holds many years of history. The church was built in the 12th century with earlier anglo-saxon origins, a Norman Castle, and a manor that is surrounded by a garden was built in the 18th century that belongs to Edward Jenner, who is a physician that invented smallpox vaccine. The archaeologist who is in charge of this excavation is Stuart Prior and his colleague Mark Horton. They started the excavation in 2005 and have been excavating since then from doing a commissioned geophysical survey of the area. They found the area to have 6,000 years of English history with many people who occupied it. They began to excavate near the mansion and in a paddock that belongs to the castle because they could not dig at a sacred ground. The team found all sorts of old artifacts such as stone tools, waste flakes, tweezers, and blades dating to Neolithic period 4000 B.C.. The oldest feature they found was a ten foot Roman track from the paddock to the castle. It is made of compacted small stones with ruts from rumbling cartwheels and a Roman spoon was found in between the stones. They found many Roman potteries that makes the team believe that there is a Roman building nearby. However, Peter Twinn, the project’s small-finds expert, has a different theory. He believes that the knife or scalpel, jewelry, tweezers, and Roman coins that date to the third and fourth centuries A.D. is connected with the Roman Temple because he sees similarity between this site with another site that is a Roman Temple. The Romans have left the site toward the end of the fourth century. That is when Roman occupation of Britain ended. Archaeologist found two skeletons in the garden of the manor. They were buried 20 feet apart, aligned the same way, and didn’t have any grave goods, which suggests they weren’t high status people. Another group of occupants were probably wealthy because archaeologist found a rare coin known as “primary sceat” that dates back to A.D. 670. The coin represents the return of coinage in Britain after Romans have left. Only wealthy and influential people carried these coins and archaeologist found other coins that shows they’ve traded with Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands. The excavation proves that the location was home to wealthy Christians and a good spot by the River and it’s defensible. The Christian Community helped restore order through small churches. There are two Christian Brothers, Eanhere and Eanfrith, founded the monastery and recruited wealthy men and women to join. The house holds about 200 people and it was a way to show allegiance with the saints and coming from other continents that brought trading advantages. Archaeologist found four churches at the top of the hill near the church that stands today, for people who worship different saints. Near the paddock, they found Saxon building filled with artifacts. They’ve found a knife handle that dates back to eighth to ninth century, Viking Jewelry, ring, beads, and gaming piece. These items depicts that the monastery holds wealthy people and people with significant trading links with the continent. In A.D. 910 and 911, the Vikings traveled to Berkeley and raided by the mid-tenth century because the religious community had went into decline. Then William, the Conqueror, defeated the last Anglo-Saxon king and conquested Berkeley and built a big Norman castle made out of wood in 1066. The castle was rebuilt in 1154 to stones that requires a large amount of mortar. This was the beginning of the Norman era in Britain. They come from the same continent and they were descended from Vikings and Germanic people. The Normans brought social changes to the communities. They uncovered a house in the paddock trenches, measuring about 15 feet by 30 feet and the house is clearly divided into rooms and contains a hearth stone (fireplace). In the Jenner’s garden, they found clay pipe stems, medicine bottles, and a dissected dog.
The purpose of this fieldwork at the site is to know more about the history at the top of the hill. They’ve found thousand years of history by finding artifacts, and wanting to learn and understand more about how these people lived, why they are here, and what happened to the people. The cultural material consist of tools, metalwork, Roman potteries, coins, jewelry, and buildings. The article does not state how these materials have been analyzed or processed, but it is possible it was analyzed or processed by stratigraphy, to see how far down the materials were buried to see what time period it could be in (far down is old, top is recent), analyzing the drawings or design of the material, soil sample from hearthstone, and the type of material it was made of. The theories or interpretations are being considered by the archaeologists is that the location has a long history because of different culture material that is found. Their idea about this has not changed. Other theories they had was finding two skeletons and wasn’t buried with any grave goods, so archaeologist believes that they weren’t high-status people, but the next people who occupied the land were. They found a rare coin that only very wealthy and influential people carried. They’ve found churches for the worship of different saints, believing that wealthy Christians occupied the land and the two brothers Eanhere and Eanfrith founded the monastery and recruited them. A unfinished bronze metal that is supposed to attach to the end of a woven belt to buckle the straps easily, wet-stone pendant, and a ornate page turner suggests metalworking and the production of manuscripts. Findings of Saxon’s bronze knife handle and other Vikings artifacts such as rings, gaming pieces, and beads shows the monastery community held wealthiest and most powerful people in the country with strong trading links. This research and fieldwork helps to understand what the purpose and function of archaeology by telling us about their findings, their theories, and their techniques and methods. It helps us learn and understand about how people lived in the past and educate us about their findings that could be significant.