Vindolanda 2017 Day Two.

Cement.  Can I make it sound interesting?  It will be a challenge.

This is looking more like the fort commander's residence and in theory there should be some good stuff around.  But it was one of those instances where the fort was very much leveled and room made for something else.  So when I was trying to figure out why we were only finding cruddy looking collapsed stones instead of nicely made walls I guess the professionalism of the demolition crew deserves honorable mention.  They razed this little mini-villa down to floor level.

Here is the stuff we are chasing. Nice cement.

And here are things once we removed that bit of manky stone that was in yesterday's post.  We have nice white cement on the right of the trench.  A smaller patch of slightly less nice stuff on the left.  And in the middle somebody has gouged out a whopping great hole and filled it with a jumble of rocks, some of which - sticking out like the top of an iceberg - gave us so much puzzlement yesterday.

And here is a close up.  Yep.  Nice cement.  Notice the crack in it.  This floor has been bashed about a bit but is really in decent shape considering it was in active use for perhaps 40 years then build over and tromped on by soldiers, horses and perhaps monks for another few centuries after that.

Well, although I like an interesting feature as well as anybody who has been bitten by the archeology bug, it is always nice to find a few things which have a more "personal" touch.  Not treasures, just things that someone once held and pondered.

A few nice bits of tile.  Of no value but still fun to find. 

Sometimes when my attention wanders, or perhaps when my keenly tuned digger's eyes have not had enough to focus on, I start seeing odd stuff.  In previous posts I have commented on the phenomena of soft "mudstone" being transformed by time and water into shapes that for sure look like the hand of man.  Or perhaps some other part of man in the subcategory I call "Mudstone Willies".  No such luck today.  You will have to settle for a Mudstone Smurf Hat.

More digs tomorrow of course.  The weather looks fine and I have found one small corner of the Inn that actually has decent wifi.  Will I be back with finds of magnificence or just more small odd stuff.

I'd like to do both.