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Since 1999, The Field Detectives have been able to record a broad range of artefacts, many of which continue to pose problems regarding their identification, purpose and date of use. Thanks to the long-term trusting relationships of farmers and landowners, our historic landscape investigations have been primarily focused on fields in South Nottinghamshire that have a landscape association with the route of the Grantham Canal, the Fosseway and several nearby villages. Over the years, we have managed to curate a body of work that offers a unique opportunity to ‘dismantle and re-construct’ some of those frustrating artefact identification uncertainties. Towards this end, we have started to group those ‘mystery’ artefacts within a portfolio of Assemblage Studies for further interrogation to see if we can learn more about them.

 

One notable aspect of the Assemblage Studies relates to the Grantham Canal and night soil. It is a layer of archaeological context that we will be sifting through over the lifetime of these studies and one that has the potential to reveal much about 19th-century Nottingham that has long since been forgotten. The objective of these investigations is to learn, which we have most certainly done over these many years, both on and off the field. We could never have achieved all that we have without the help of many. Collaboration has been the key to our successes, and people engagement has been our gateway for sharing the learning. Through working together, we have shown that the unknown can be known, lost stories can be told and the forgotten can be found.

 

The first phase of these Assemblage Studies will include Tailor’s Buttons, Gaming Pieces, and a growing number of lead artefacts that we currently refer to as, Triangular Lead Weights.

 

Let’s see where these new investigations take us.

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