Vindolanda Day Eight

Another bright, sunny day.  Anaerobic preservation levels were reached at several parts of the site including our little trench.  The technique in these deposits is to cut sections of the trench fill with a sharp spade, then crumble them by hand into wheel barrows.  It is the only way to find small, subtle things, especially those made from wood or leather.

Here's a nice shoe from another part of the site:

Also a folded up section of Roman tent made out of leather:

That end of the site had a very good day indeed.  Top find was this Roman knife.  Iron blade, handle made from - I think - wood, lead and leather.  (note, I'm normally not going to show metal objects here but this one was already shown on the official Vindolanda twitter feed, so should be OK.

Oh, and what did I find?  Well, lots of clay and rock, now mixed with twigs and sticks.  Very occasionally a bit of pottery.  So far nothing of great importance.  After you stare long enough at not much, you start to notice little things.  Check out this tiny 1800 year old beetle found in the anaerobic layers!  Still beautiful and iridescent after all these centuries.

Oh, and this might be the other side of the bench support uncovered yesterday.  Up the slope a ways and with the tricksy parts still buried.  It will stay there for the time being.