Day one of the dig is complete and I’d consider it a success. The weather’s stayed relatively dry and sunny, so the site felt very different than it did last time. There are fantastic views of Ardmaddy Bay and the castle below the pass, and the coin-tree itself seems a lot less melancholy when it’s basking in the sun. But the site felt different in another way – because this time I wasn’t there as a folklorist, but as an archaeologist.
There’s something about designating a place an ‘archaeological excavation site’ that gives it more prestige – even, to a certain extent, a sense of sanctity. The marker flags, total station, array of buckets, shovels and measuring tapes, all contribute to this shift, as if they imbue it with greater importance. They remove it from the surrounding landscape, marking it out as something ‘special’. Although I’m always careful with coin-trees, making sure never to damage them or remove coins, I was suddenly very hesitant about touching this tree and cautious when moving around in its vicinity. It was a strange transition from my last visit, when I’d felt as if the wishing-tree was a stunning but natural part of the landscape rather than as a fragile monument, and it really struck me that archaeology doesn’t just explore sites; it alters them.
But anyway, back to the dig!
While Jane and I were in Oban buying supplies (obviously you can’t dig without an ample supply of biscuits and cakes), Lara, Ellen and John were busy with the metal detector. They went around the tree and its enclosure, putting markers in areas with a high metal content, and we later used those markers to identify the best spots for our test pits. We’ve decided on 6 pits – 5 in the enclosure and 1 outside, all fairly irregularly sized because of the layout of the tree. Once those were decided, we began surveying with the total station – my first experience with one (thank you everyone for your patience…)
By the time we’d finished surveying the enclosure, the tree, and the markers, evening was drawing in and it had started to rain. So we packed up and headed back to the cottage, ready to begin digging tomorrow.
Although we didn’t actually break ground today, we made plenty of interesting discoveries. Since my last visit, a large branch of the tree has broken away, revealing two very rusty horseshoes embedded in the trunk. We’ve decided that they must have been there for quite some time because the tree has grown around them. There’s so much folklore associated with horseshoes and their protective powers, especially in Scotland, so I obviously got very excited about this discovery (note to self though: don’t over-interpret). We also found a 1927 penny which had come loose from the main trunk, which is the oldest coin I’ve found at the site so far. It’s green with verdigris and crooked, so was probably bent over during insertion. Tied to the branches of both the old tree and its young offshoot, we also found ribbons, hair bobbles, strips of cloth and wool, and somebody – probably not having anything on them to attach to the tree – has made a ribbon out of blades of grass and tied that around a branch instead. It just goes to show that some people are so determined to make a deposit that they’ll use anything they can. And an example of dissemination: the tree is getting so full of coins that people have started embedding them into the wooden posts of the enclosure.
So lots of interesting finds and we’ve not even started digging yet!
The Ardmaddy Wishing-Tree Project 