A nice day of digging on site, balmy winds instead of the usual Northumberland rain and mud.
The area I am working on is in the corner of some sort of building. Based on how Roman forts of this sort were usually laid out it ought to be a barracks. But it is larger than expected. There are also large numbers of arrowheads turning up.
Specifically I am up in one corner of the place. The floor is made up of big flat slabs that appear to be sinking dramatically. This often means they are subsiding into something older, perhaps a ditch from one of the earlier forts. But there really should not be such a thing here. Mysteries.
Various things turning up on site. Broken coins - the late silver ones would have been sliced and diced for charge. A possible butt end of a spear. A bit of chain.
And of course the inevitable bits of pot. Here is a nice wine cup (?) base.
Here is a bunch of just washed items to show the mix of pottery, metal and whatnot.
A lot of excavating is pattern recognition. Observe the two items below. One is a broken fragment of brooch. The other just a seriously warped nail. Can you see the difference?*
Here is a slightly easier one. One is a lead item unearthed a year ago. It is a "good luck" charm in a familiar pattern. The other is an elaborate bit of soft stone formed by water erosion into a close miminc. We refer to this as a "mudstone willy". I seem to find these every other year or so.
Sun and glorious digging weather predicted for tomorrow!
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*don't feel badly, I couldn't figure these out without a bit of assistance and I could actually see them.
1 comment:
Sending you a package. Hope she arrived in fine shape. Keep in touch & drive safely.
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