Vindolanda 2022 Day Nine - A Good Day

Perfect weather today.  Yesterday evening we actually had sun and brisk winds.  This dries the site off quickly.  We were working in the same area as in recent days but with new features peeking out.  Also peeking out were some small finds.  First up a chunk of amphora, one of those whopping big Roman storage jars for wine, olive oil etc.  Usually very generic this one has either graffiti or logo.  Perhaps this was some low end stuff....Brand X?

A tooth.  Consensus in our trench was possibly wild boar.  Whatever it came from it looks a nasty bit of dentition.

Lesson in oxides part one.  When you are carefully troweling you will sometimes encounter rusty shadows.  Do they indicate some iron thing more or less intact just below?  In this case just a bit of rusted out "something".

Lesson in oxides part two.  Most people are pretty sure about iron oxide, but what does it mean when you encounter this?  A sort of greyish blue leaching into the soil.  I'm not permitted to show excavated coins (which is too bad this year!) but the crumbling ghost of a decayed silver denarius that was under this would in no way tempt illicit "night hawks" with metal detectors and larcenous inclinations.

And for those interested in "features" here's our trench at the end of the day.  Remember that interpretation is above my pay grade and in any case provisional.  But you should be seeing here a mix of early 3rd century flooring and mid 2nd century road cobbles and pavers.  Might there eventually be a road side drain full of interesting things?  Stay tuned.