Will the Circle be Unbroken? UWaterloo Students at the Streethouse Stone Circle
Written by Murad Alizada-Hamidlinski
Our team was selected to start work on the Streethouse site in Loftus, Tees Valley, North East England. Under the supervision of the experienced archaeologist Dr. Stephen Sherlock, we set out to excavate the 4000 year old stone circle, while clearing and maintaining the perimeter around it.
As part of this enterprise, members of the Lab were divided into several shifts. The duration of work for each crew member varied depending on their availability. The rotation of the members would result in completion of their field work, and their lodgings would be vacated for the next arrivals. I landed in England on July 3rd, and my 3-week shift in Loftus started on July 7th, 2025.
Our shift arrived to resurface the site previously worked on in the Spring of 2024. After the excavator removed the previously disturbed layer, we were armed with our kneepads, trowels, hand shovels, and the trusty buckets. By the end of our campaign, we had:
Established a perimeter by the road, and built a crescent-shaped topsoil discard around the site, additionally shielding it from wind.
Completely unearthed stone circle.
Scanned, planned, and took coordinates of the boulders.
Geolocated all of our small finds and field-processed them.
Started hitting clay deposits in the center and around the circle.
Found an underlying site that both intersected and predated our circle.
Conducted soil resistivity training and testing in the nearby farm, potentially outlining a Roman road.
Trained to identify coordinates using both modern electronic equipment, as well as traditional parallax method with the levelling equipment.
Conducted core sampling and GPS surveying.
There were certain environmental challenges during our excavation. Previous tilling of the soil has damaged and removed some stones from their original location. This disturbed topsoil also contained a large number of discards, likely from the Victorian period. These were mostly shards of pottery and broken glass, ceramic fragments, metal bits of farm equipment and rusty remnants of tools. After removing the topsoil, we hit a different type of yellowish clay deposit, which was considerably harder to trowel. Additionally, sunny days would dry the clay, making it difficult to observe burn patterns and charcoal residue, which meant that the clay had to be watered and visually assessed before extraction.
Farming and monoculture affected the insect variety present nearby. Our uninvited disturbance of the soil was not welcome by the local insects. In three successive waves, we had to experience the exodus of tiny spiders (who fancied climbing the archaeologists-in-training), invasive orange ladybugs, and hyperactive cornflies brought by the wind. The spiders proceeded to climb to the top of my sun-helmet and weave their webs right before my eyes.
Some minor issues occurred with rain. It turned the clay too wet, making it unsafe to walk on it. As per our safety precautions, we halted the dig until the surface was dry enough.
While not quite an environmental challenge, having bystanders and school kids served as an effective stimulus. Several local school groups would visit and learn about the site, while work was ongoing. Local passerby would provide positive commentary, and inquire on our progress. All of this reminded us of the importance of our work, and made us feel further appreciated.
Our digging methodology included excavating the top layer, which produced a lot of loose soil. We removed it using trowels, uncovering a large number of flint. Among rarer finds in July was a glass bead by Gillian Wagenaar, and a microlith by Etienne Chevalier. My biggest find was a small piece of jet on the earlier days of the dig at the Southern side of the circle.
About 14 meters away from our starting point, we discovered peculiar orange burn marks, and traces of charcoal. When I dug a test pit, I came across an unusually large deposit of pebbles, localised in a specific spot. Further investigation will likely be carried out by the next shift on the clay strata.
In conclusion, this dig was a phenomenal opportunity for us to gain archaeological training on the field, test our essential skills, and learn the basics of field work. We used cutting edge technology to geomark the finds, and kept training with traditional tools to have a secure backup in case the electronics failed. Dr. Sherlock effectively rotated our responsibilities, providing guidance and feedback on our efforts.