Vindolanda 2023 - A few more Finds

Just as the last day of excavations was directed towards tidying up the trenches, so also will the first day(s) of post ex be about tidying up photographic left overs.

Lots of bone comes up from the deeper layers and in near perfect preservation.  There is an expert that analyzes these remains and ponders the Roman diet in ancient times.  I think this one is goat.  Sheep and pigs have surprisingly large and frightening teeth.

The rule on site is that metal artifacts of note - meaning not nails and such - can't be freely shared.  Dark of night metal detectorists have not been a big problem in recent times but if you started showing off gold bling some deluded souls might try slipping around in dark trenches and trying to sort out the hundreds of thousands of nails and rusty stones.  They'd find nothing while making a huge mess of things.  But once the organization running the show puts something up on Social Media it is fair game as long as you don't say exactly what and where it was, nor speculate beyond the basic.  So here ya go...

This is "in situ".  Here's a slightly cleaned up view of one part of it.

Fun.  And as is so often the case it was unearthed by a Vindolanda First Timer.  I showed her a few basics in Week One of the session and she went on to find far more interesting stuff than I in Week Two.  And that's actually fine.

Here's an item not found this year but still has a connection.  My friend Kate dug this up years ago.  It was a surprise find as it was right near the surface clinging to the roots of the turf.  Probably it had been tossed about by Romans, Saxons, modern day plows, rabbits, etc.  It is part of a bronze Roman calendar.  Quite remarkable really to think of somebody in the Second Century AD marking the days and weeks on the edge of the Empire.  It now has a place of pride in the site museum.

The connection with the 2023 excavation season?  Although not excavating this year Kate did come to our night before Jet Lag Drinks Hour.  I knew that she'd recently had this made into a tattoo, which only makes sense given that her daughter is a professional artiste in this genre.  Knowing that it was discreetly on her arm I did suggest over pints that she show off her new ink, and then enjoyed the expressions of those who were wondering just what she was going to bare in the friendly confines of The Bowes pub! 

As you can see this is from the September part of the calendar.  K = Kalends, the first of the month.  ID = Ides.  Not always the 15th as in the famous Ides of March, it indicated the middle of the month which was the 13th in September. 

Ideally this would have been for the Roman month of November as on line sign up for 2024 excavations is in the early part of that month.  The people who spent their lives in drudge work nearly 2000 years ago would have such a hard time understanding why volunteers from around the world are so fanatically eager to come and dig up their ruined buildings and discarded stuff!