England 2025 - The Usual Odd People

Offered with minimal commentary.

Now, you might be wondering why there is no "Album Cover" photo this year.  It is after all a long standing tradition that we pose moodily for the camera in the fashion of some 70's band.  

Well its like this.  Half of the "Anaerobes" decided to spend the in between Saturday going to a big tattoo show in Newcastle.  It was rather..........well, I don't know exactly what it was but this was part of the entertainment there:

Yikes.  Could it be that the Anaerobes will split up, with one branch going sort of "Death Metal" and renaming themselves Anoxia?  Lots of flames, almost as much as on that 60th birthday cake, Pete!

England 2025 - The Usual Odd Sights

Wrapping up the trip to England.  I took fewer pictures than usual.  After 18 years of visiting the same place perhaps fewer things catch my eye.  But still.....

On arrival we usually make a trip to Tesco, which is a bit like a British Wal Mart or Target.  The last several years we've run into some of our digging pals who are on the same schedule.  Anthea, they were clearly expecting you!  Security nets and tags on all the gin.

And of course the usual product double entendres were to be found.

Our accommodation is next door to an interesting pottery.  Zombie Chickens and ceramic tractor tire planters.

Things in this very old part of the world change.  Or don't change depending on your perspective.  On my morning walk into the site I pass a crumbling ruin of a cottage.  I don't know how old it was, but this year there was almost nothing left except this.  Weirdly the metal hook looks nearly identical to a Roman one that I dug the next day.

Northumberlandia - Now that's a Big Girl

No doubt you've heard the expression "Coals to Newcastle".  They used to mine a great deal of coal in the area back in the day.  Which left a bit of a mess.  Some years back an open pit mine just north of Newcastle was tidied up in a rather distinctive way....by making the world's largest nude figure out of 1.5 million tons of rock and mine tailings.  Behold Northumberlandia, the Lady of the North.

I've seen her from the air when approaching the Newcastle airport.  Although she is posed somewhat demurely, you can't help but notice those 100 foot tall....er....mounds.

On our recent visit several members of our band of adventurers went in for a closer look.

And of course.....

That's Sue, our excavator-novelist.  She has a history of doing cartwheels over various landscapes.  While far from being a Prude, she did at least show Prudence in not attempting to careen straight off the giant nipple and down into the Cleavage below.

I don't get to use my Larger than Life tag very often, but the Lady of the North deserves nothing less.  

Vindolanda - Benches of Memorium

As you walk in the western gate of the Vindolanda site you go past several benches.  Nice shady spots for people to rest, especially on their way back from visiting the site.

But they are more than that.  This one has a bit of text across it that reads:  HE CAME. HE DUG. HE LOVED.  A PASSIONATE VOLUNTEER 2006-2018.  I like that.  There is also a little bronze plaque.

This got me thinking.  I'm sure there was an arrangement whereby the Trust that runs the site put this up after a donation by the Lutz family.  So.....what would I put on "my" bench?

How about this:

Perhaps I'd up the game a bit more.  Wooden benches are nice, but a few seasons back something was unearthed from the bath house site.  Behold, one support from a Stone Bench!

I'm still excavating with most of these folks.

Now I realize that the inscription will puzzle some people.  That's unavoidable.  Badger Trowelsworthy both is and is not me.  He's an alter ego, so if you want to be picky about it, I'm real and he isn't.  He of course insists that the exact opposite it true, and frankly there are times he almost has me convinced.  More on the old scoundrel HERE.  

Bollards

We've gotten pretty accomplished at using public transportation in England.  It helps that the bus runs in front of our pub/accommodation, with the train only a few hundred yards away.  I have never been willing to drive in the UK.  It's the "wrong side of the road" thing along with the narrow twisty roads full of interesting things to be looking at instead of what I should be.

From the window of the bus we saw this.  And as it was only a mile from home base I had to go back and inspect.

These are traffic bollards, sturdy posts on the edge of roads.  Just in case a distracted, careless or American driver comes by.  They are of course outside the village school.

A nice union of form and function.  I suppose the fact that the tip of the pencils is red is just for that added bit of safety, not a reminder of papers to be corrected!  They look sturdy.  I bet they'll still be standing when students no longer know what a pencil actually is!

Vindolanda 2025 - Jet Lag Recovery Week

Back home safely after a trip with eerily efficient connections everywhere.  Walk up, get on.  It will be a few days of mild mental and physical impairment, but circadian rhythms will be lulled with naps and flogged with strong coffee.  Time for a few follow up thoughts and pictures of May 2025 in eerily sunny Northern England.

I kept forgetting to post a picture of this nice floor tile with a pair of 18 century old fingerprints in it.  It was handy to keep our finds bag stationary in windy conditions, but said bag got pretty stable with the large number of pottery shards we were pulling up.  Oh, and a fair percentage of an 18 hundred year old cow.

For those following the story here over the past two weeks, the end of session video overview might be enlightening.  We had an extended version of this as our end of session site walk.

The daily walk to and from the site was delightful.  With some necessary twists and turns it is about two miles there and a bit more coming back by a different route.  Plenty of hills, beautiful scenery.  I saw rabbits, pheasants, deer.  And of course, these guys.  

More ramblings of a written variety in the days ahead, probably becoming more coherent around mid week.

Vindolanda 2025 - Day 10 and Last

In the past my final day at Vindolanda was one of frantic troweling.  Surely that elusive find that had been taunting me all session was just another scrape away!  But no more.  I enjoy the last day, tidy things up, make everything nice for the next crew coming in on Monday.  It was in fact a minimal finds day....but again with the magnificent weather we've had the entire two weeks.

A few bits of scrap metal.  Iron, and as shown here, bronze.  You recognize this stuff by the green tinge in the soil around it.  I tell newbies to look for the color of motel swimming pools.

Iron can be trickier as there is plenty of low grade iron ore around, leaching into the soil  But sometimes you can squint and see interesting things.  Here's what you see when somebody leaves a sandal on the floor 1700 years ago.  Just the ghosts of the hob nails.

And of course pottery.  I have to remind myself that when I started out it was very exciting to get a nice bit like this.

Work this session was spread out across a wide area, so the end of session trench talk was very informative.  For instance, the mystery post Roman "blob" might actually be two adjacent collapsed buildings.  Next session will sort it out.  Hopefully.  I'll update when they do.

And so another digging season ends.  We'll see if Fortuna, or more likely KLM, brings me back again.

Vindolanda 2025- Day Nine

The area I'm working is looking more and more like a metal shop of some sort.  Some bits of metal working tools have appeared, including a fancy S shaped hook I found.  Just the thing to suspend a crucible over a fire.

The central feature, perhaps a forge, is looking majestic.

One nice thing about excavating structures on the ramparts is that they are more likely to be conserved, reinforced for visitors to see in the years ahead.  We are chasing walls here and there, but might have not one but two entrances to the structure.

I found several fun metal things today, alas not at liberty to post them.  But there's always other things turning up.  Here Pete mugs for the camera with a massive cow jaw he found!  Nice teeth.

And of course there are nails.  Large ones, small ones, all sorts of nails.

The session before us had a rather noteworthy find, a phallus carved from jet.  I'm told it got noticed widely including on some late night US TV show.  It does get you looking at things in a different light.  As Sigmund Freud might be paraphrased, when is a nail just a nail?

Hmmmm...

And a slightly longer Hmmmm.....

Spoilers....just nails.   One more day of digging tomorrow.  If post digging celebrations preclude posting I'll catch up when I can.

Vindolanda 2025 - Day Eight

First off, apologies for teasing with respect to the big circular structure I was on last week.  It is turning out to be larger than expected, and will require a fairly major effort to properly excavate.  I shall update when feasible.

I did not contribute to that effort today, as I was assigned to a new area.  To the Ramparts, Comrades!

Ramparts are the earthen berms inside the fort walls.  Sentries can stroll about, looking down with disdain at any potential interlopers.  In this case the bucket loader adjacent was a welcome addition to the team.  It saved us an unpleasant barrow run.

Although ramparts are made of packed clay, and as such have a bit of an ill rep among excavators, they were actually a spot where lots was going on.  Guy stuff, mostly.

Roman forts were not all stone, there was still a lot of wood around.  So cooking, at least for the common soldiery, was done on the ramparts.  Guys barbecuing meat.  You find lots of bones.

There also seemed to be, at least in our area, some kind of metal recycling going on.  Guys taking out the trash.  Plenty of scrap iron and the odd bit of bronze.  My friend Pete found some some especially good bits and is here hoisting the "staff of recognition" to site in a small find.

His side of the trench was more productive than mine.  I got bits of pottery and one teeny, tiny 4th century coin.  We don't know what the value of these little critters was, but you find them often enough to assume that when people dropped them they said "Qui Curat" (Who cares!) and kept going.

Bits and bobs.  A chunk of amphora tossed away 18 centuries ago and still where it landed.

More reports from the Ramparts tomorrow.

 

Vindolanda 2025 - Day Seven

Really outstanding weather again.  Various things happening on different ends of the site.  Someone came up with this:

This is an intaglio.  These were semi precious stones that would be engraved with an image - usually a god of some sort - and set into a ring.  Sometimes they fell out.  This was a random find, but they are very common in the drain systems of Roman baths.  The heat would make the metal expand, the stone would drop out and go down the drain!

Back to my area....\

It really does look like a random patch of rock and rubble, especially since the little arc of undisturbed dirt was taken out.  But it is still....something.

A floor surface starts to emerge.

And my star find of the day?

What a nice nail!  Probably a hobnail from Roman foot wear but you can't rule out any of a number of other uses from all sorts of time frames.

Intoxicating weather forecast for tomorrow.  And some of those rocks are going bye-bye....

Vindolanda 2025 - Day Six

I spent last week working on a couple rooms of a long infantry barracks.  4th century on the top, 3rd on the lower layers.  This week, something different.  Sitting on top of the north end of the barracks is an odd, jumbled pile of rough looking stones.  It's.....something.

 

It is more or less round.  The stuff off to the left is plain old dirt.  On the right it is set on top of the barracks structures, which like everything the Romans built, were made with straight lines and right angles.  Well, lets say almost everything the Romans built was like that.

Here's one exception.  Vindolanda has a large series of these round structures.  The purpose is a mystery but they were built in the time of the Severan campaigns and may have held British loyalists to the Imperial cause.  Or prisoners.  British folks lived in round houses after all.

Ah, but this critter is several layers higher, and probably a couple of centuries later, so not likely.  Well, how about.....

Late Roman and post Roman churches had rounded sides.  This is one from the other end of the site.  Certainly a candidate.   Not too many other possibilities exist.  Sometimes Roman work shops would have a rounded apse.  Probably where the forge or furnace was.  It's a odd thing to look for in a probable Post Roman context, but as it happens the technology involved in making iron into nails and weapons survived into the Dark Ages.  

So.....I'll update when I can, but at the end of the day's work something interesting did turn up to suggest an answer..........

Vindolanda 2025 - Day Five

Brilliant sun to finish out the first week.  I've spent the whole time working on a side by side pair of infantry barracks rooms.  Can't say I've found much, just bits of pottery.  Oh, and I guess this:

Sometimes you find bits of iron totally rusted onto a floor surface.  I suspect this was the point of a knife....or an arrow head.  A proper arrow head was found a couple of rooms over.

This one was in a post Roman, aka Dark Ages context.  It's a design that has changed very little over a very long time.

Otherwise it was just cleaning floors.  2nd century floors,  3rd century floors....just bashed up floors in general.

Time for a weekend of diversions.  I'm not accustomed to working in bright sunshine and warmth.  Takes a bit out of ya.

Vindolanda 2025 - Day Four

The atypical perfect weather continues.  I find this disturbing.  Can't say I've ever seen a forecast here with 0% possibility of precipitation.

I've continued to sort out the details of the barracks room I've been in since the start of the week.  It has been bashed about quite a bit since between being built in the 3rd Century and being beaten up by plows in the 19th.   I'll skip the technical details and just show some.....things

Low grade artifacts:

Pot Lids, just bits of flat stone or broken pot that are shaped into round to cover some sort of vessels.  Pottery? Wooden bowls?  Who knows.  The supervising archaeologist hates 'em and lets her Mediterranean passions fly when I bring her one.  I try to look apologetic..

Foolishly I went and found a second.

Pseudo artifacts:  People sometimes ask why we don't use metal detectors on site.  The roughly one million nails in the ground are one reason.  Another is iron stone.  Sort of a low grade iron ore that forms nodules.  By surface appearance and weight these appear to be iron artifacts.  This one at least had a soft "core" that gave away the game.

Small, very small artifacts.  Too tiny to even get a picture of it but with two minutes to go in the digging day I spotted a tiny bit of blue glass.  It was a broken bead.  I was rather pleased that my 68 year old eyes picked it up.

Not everything on site is that difficult.