Vindolanda 2022 Day fifteen - Breathe Deep

A good day even though we found very little.  If I might explain.

For the last three days we have been doing a complicated approach.  The layers of archaelogy where things are perfectly preserved by anaerobic conditions are not easy to get to.  They are down there a ways.  They are under sealing layers of heavy clay.  There have been assorted test trenches dug down into them.  It is heavy work.  Ah, but when you get close.....

There is a distinctive smell to anaerobic layers.  Nothing quite describes it.  It is a sort of musty, fermented, damp wood sort of thing.  You get brief whiffs of it to keep your spirits from flagging in the long descent through heavy clay.  And then you get a proper spade full, hold it up and take an intoxicating slow sniff of it....

 Some random things have of course popped up.  Nothing great, but hints.

Perfectly preserved silver birch sticks.

Moss and twigs.  Next week we will dive deeper.  Not into areas where artifacts are guaranteed, but where they are possible.  And when you are down to where wood and leather are preserved, and where metal comes out clean and free of rust and tarnish....well the sweet smell of success is decidedly musty and damp.