The Ravens Warband

Settlement Project Diary 2005

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November 2005

The frame of the grubenhaus is complete and the framework to support the thatched roof is underway. The door frame has been completed and work has commenced on the plank door. Each plank is made from a length of timber which is first roughly shaped and then squared up and smoothed.

The complete frame for the building (we hope the pit will not fill up with water once the roof is in place!)	The planks for the door are roughed out by cutting notches at intervals along the length and then removing the waste between the notches..	The rough planks are then squared and smoothed.

August 2005

The frame of the grubenhaus is now nearing completion. All the structural timbers are now in place. Once the door frame is complete, work can begin on the roof.

	The joints are simple laps secured with pegs.

May 2005

The main timbers of the grubenhaus are now in place.

Felling the timbers The postholes are dug out The first post goes up

More photos     The frame of the building begins to take shape

April 2005

Our first Soay lambs have been born.

March 2005

Building has now started! The first building will be the sunken featured building or grubenhaus. This measures 3.1m x 2.4m and is built as a simple 'A' frame structure over a shallow pit. Evidence for the depth of the pit is limited, but the best estimate is 45-60cm. It is dug using a mattock to strip the turf and break up the hardest ground and a spade to dig out the earth. The tools are surprisingly effective - after 3 man-hours the turf was stripped and about one sixth of the pit dug to the required depth.

After the first day's digging.

The sheep are now {hopfully!} in lamb with the births expected around the end of April.

February 2005

Over the last couple of months work has been focused on making the tools that will be needed to build the first building. These include spades and mattocks. Evidence for both of these comes from manuscripts and archaeological finds, particularly from York (see Wood and Woodworking in Anglo-Scandinavian and Medieval York by Carole Morris). The spades will have an iron 'shoe' on the cutting edge.

Manuscript evidence for spades

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