Vindolanda 2013 - Tenth and Final Day

A two week session where no digging time was lost to weather....unprecedented.

My Dark Age/Late Roman floor ended up looking nice when cleaned up but not much for dating materials.  A good part of the day was spent in clean up but a few things turned up in my trench.  And more in the trenches of luckier diggers.

I did find this, it appears to be a Roman door handle.  Elsewhere on the site a key and the bronze facing for a lock turned up, making a nice assemblege.

Here is something I have been looking for ever since I started digging Roman - a brick with a legionary stamp.  Evidently specialist troops from the elite legions were detailed to help build forts such as Vindolanda which were in general constructed by and garrisoned with auxiliary troops from around the Empire.

This stamp is from the Sixth Legion.

Here is something very, very old.  A fossilized tree trunk built into the wall repairs.

And finally, any guesses?

It is apparently a pile of hobnails.  They were found in a fairly dense concentration and appear to be all that was left behind when a Roman boot or sandal vanished over the past 1800 years!

So tools down for another year.  I look at the floors and features we exposed - many due to be further excavated in years ahead  What lies beneath?  Only one way to tell.

Hoping Fortuna smiles upon me.