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- Written by Jemima Woolverton
On Monday 14th October we held our second Advisory Group which was well-attended by representatives of the Jigsaw affiliated groups. Full minutes will be available shortly, but in the meantime we thought we'd let you know that one of the Action points has been actioned:
Reps asked that the online calendar could contain information about which group is borrowing equipment from the Equipment Resource at any point in time, so it is easier to discern whether the equipment is available to borrow. We have now updated the Calendar function of the website with this information. As you can see, with winter approaching, the number of bookings has unsurprisingly dropped!
The calendar can be found here, or under the 'Training Opportunities' tab.
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- Written by Jemima Woolverton
We hoped to hold a 'Theory and Methods of Landscape Survey' class-based course by Nicholas James on Monday 13th May but unfortunately we had to postpone this course due unforeseen circumstances.
We have now rescheduled this course for Monday 4th November from 7-9pm at the Meade Room, University Centre, Cambridge.
The course will cover the principles of survey and of measurement, the three Levels defined by English Heritage, case studies, and the opportunity to interpret up to 5 examples of surveys from the Cambridge region, deducing what was done and why, and assessing the results.
If you would like to attend, please complete the booking form.
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- Written by Jemima Woolverton
We are pleased to affiliate The March Society to Jigsaw. See their website for more information on their activities.
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- Written by Jemima Woolverton
This is a new forum available to group members to request help from other members of the Jigsaw Community. There are 5 sections: Training Bank (where groups can request or offer training from other groups), Skills Bank (where groups can request help from someone with a skill, e.g. metal detecting or surveying), Speakers Bank (where groups can request a speaker or offer their skills), Fieldwork Opportunities, and Jigsaw Community Blog (where anyone can write about what activities they are involved in). This does not replace support by Jigsaw staff, but will facilitate closer networking and sharing between groups, and will make the project more sustainable in the long term.
We are now ready to launch this facility! To register, please go to the homepage of the Jigsaw website: http://www.jigsawcambs.org/ and in the yellow 'Portal to The Missing Piece' box, please click on 'Create an account' and enter your details. Your application will need to be approved by Jo or Jemima, and then you are free to participate fully. We hope this will be a really useful and well-used resource; the idea was well-received by the Advisory Group. There will inevitably be teething problems, please do let Jemima know when these occur, as she is managing the IT side of it.
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- Written by Jemima Woolverton
Well, summer seems to be on the way out, so we thought we'd flag up some highlights of activities over the summer:
In July, GamArch excavated two testpits in Gamlingay. They found hardcore in one (interesting because we weren't expecting it). In the other we found an extremely large number of finds, ranging from the very modern (plastic figurines), to the very old (Saxon pottery) and the very random (a sythe!). Do check out some of the photos. They plan to conduct some more systematic fieldwalking over the autumn.
In August, Warboys Archaeology Project excavated some testpits on a piece of land they had previously conducted plane-table and geophysical survey on. Much to everyone's surprise (except Roger, who seems to have sixth sense) they found a beautiful floor-surface under a layer of building rubble! They plan to return to uncover more of it in the future. Do check out the photos.
We also held our 'Metal Detecting Policy and Practical' course, which was well-attended. It was great to learn about good metal detecting policy from Helen Fowler, Finds Liaison Officer, and also to learn how to discern differerent metal types on the test bed of Peter Dight, local metal detectorist (see picture). Jigsaw now has its own low-middle range metal-detector, available for Jigsaw groups to borrow.
What have you been up to over the summer? Do send in your stories and photos.
Looking ahead, this Saturday we are holding two Fieldwalking courses, now fully-booked!