Vindolanda 2012 day seven

A somewhat frustrating day.  Maybe I will tell that story tomorrow.  For today, just a few small finds that have turned up on site....

This is a lump of lead.  You can recognize these by the powdery white lead oxide on the surface and by their weight.  I looked hard at this to see if it might be another mold for bronze casting.   Nah, just a lump of lead.

Here is a bit of decorated Samian ware.  I like this stuff.  It has the color of a ripe Halloween pumpkin, and sometimes comes with elaborate designs.  It is very helpful for dating purposes too, as the designs have been studied and dated with some accuracy.  Note the water in the trench, rained again last night.

A nifty little blue glass bead.  You need sharp eyes to spot these babies.  May I express my thanks to my ophthalmologist at this time?

There were some other finds on site.  A coin, a fire starting flint, another bead.  But my favorite of the day was this:

The brick I showed a few days ago had some debatable animal prints vs. finger prints.  Well, this brick/tile leaves no doubt.  Clear dog foot print!  I sometimes wonder...does our current alternative name for dog, Fido (Latin for faithful) reflect after all these years a common Roman dog name?  I'd like to think so.

Vindolanda 2012 day six

Those nice deep trenches full of black sticky soil that preserves everything.......

mmmmmm...anaerobes

Well, guess what.  They don't start out that way.  Nope, they begin with a process called "de-turfing".  This involves sliceing up wet, heavy turf (don't use the word sod here in the UK) and removing it.

You cut it up into chunks and load it into barrows.  These are about 2/3 full.  I hauled a lot of these today.  Just thought you might be interested in the less glamourous side of archeology.

In theory our supervisors have us open up new areas for a reason.  In this case we are trying to establish a water source at the head of a channel that feeds a bath house.  Is there a spring, or a water tank up there somewhere?  This kind of surface work rarely turns up artifacts, but we did find a very corroded Roman coin and we also found this:

A nice chunk of Roman tile.  I figured, great!, this is just what you would find on the floor of a spring house or the area around a fountain.  I mean, in looking at samples for a home bathroom remodel I saw pretty much the same kind of stuff.

And it could be so, but an alternate theory is that the cross cuts were to hold plaster, and that the stuff was used for walls.

More secrets lie below, stay tuned.

The awful Twice Brewed Pub Quiz is tonight.  Last week's outing was too pathetic to chronicle.



American Politics-Understanding by Misunderstanding?

There are lots of British phrases that have different meanings in "American English".  Plus, some accents are a little hard to make out.

So, when I heard some of my fellow diggers talking about "99" I assumed it was a continuation of our previous discussion of American politics and that they meant something like this:

It seemed a logical assumption, certainly when I was in France last fall it was the subject of very active interest.  But as the conversation went on it became clear that what they meant was this:

This is a "99", a traditional version of English ice cream!  Nobody could actually remember where the name came from.

So, as to the nebulous goals of the Occupy Movement and their frenetic, disruptive energies a theory comes forth.

They WANT some ice cream and they will throw a FIT until they get some!

Archeology, the Mole's Eye View

This may come as news to my non archeology readers, but the most industrious, hardest working, most fearless archaeologist afoot these days does not resemble Indiana Jones in any particular.  He actually looks like this:

Moles.  They are pretty much everywhere in the UK, and always busy digging around at things.  Often they turn up little bits and bobs in their efforts.

So looking at mole hills is a traditional way to do site surveys.  It is cheap and pretty much non invasive.  Well, actually the little guys do disturb things a bit, mess up the strata and so forth, but issuing rules and regs forbidding them to do so has had minimal effect.

Here is a link to another site in this general part of the UK.  My B & B hostess participated and says a number of things were found including an ornamental fitting for a water faucet.

On a brilliant Saturday (oh so much better than 48 hours ago!) between digging sessions, three of us went about to a Roman site that shall remain anonymous.  There was said to be a bathhouse in a secluded part of the site, and we saw some irregularity in the turf.

Consulting the Moles....

Zooming in closer we see.....

Tell tale bits of Roman brick!  Circa 2nd Century AD and brought up this week by my small, fuzzy colleagues!

Vindolanda 2012 day five

After discouraging weather forecasts I was surprised to see breaks in the clouds this morning and-Sol Invictus!-sunshine by lunch time.

So we got a little better than a half day of digging in, albeit much of it doing clean up duty.

On one end of the site they are down into the layers where organic stuff gets preserved.  Mmmmm...nice soupy mud with fence posts coming through:

This is called "cut and crumble" technique.  Slice the murky Jello with a spade and the up top crew crumbles it into bits looking for the small and interesting.  A rather pleasant job actually.  They found a bit of leather in this trench, as well as these:

Either barrel staves or parts of a bucket.  Also the usual pottery and glass.

My crew was unable to get back into our "almost organic" trench, and were detailed to deturfing duty.  This involves removing the upper layer of grass prepping for a new trench.  Oh, and don't call it sod, that's slightly rude over here.

You might imagine that there would be few finds just under the grass roots, and that what there was would be new:

And right you would be.....a 1970's beer can pull tab!

I will likely take the weekend off from posting, I shall be resting up and doing a bit of countryside walking.  More digging updates on Monday, weather permitting.

All too clear on the Marketing Concept

No archeology today, we had heavy rain and the site is drenched.  There is so much water that the local stream has overflowed and I see new rivers coming down the sides of nearby hills.  Digging tomorrow very much in doubt.

So, a rainy day trip to Carlisle.

I had never been there before.  Interesting sights, some for future posts.  But here is something you do not see just every day, an English shop specializing in American Junk Food!

Amerikandy.  Amazingly this seems to be a knockoff of a chain called Americandy that sells a similar line!  As to the wares being sold, well now:

And.....

Froot Loops is getting pretty Hard Core.  Even in the States they are seldom consumed by people over the age of about 12.  Brace yourself:

Pop Tarts, Lucky Charms, Hershey Bars, Jelly Belly sodas, Jolly Ranchers and what appears to be a can of straight Marshmellow creme. 

I just had to know, so I peeked into the window.  A genuine Slurpee machine was on the counter.  There were some customers, they appeared to be young urban hipsters.

Easy on that stuff hipsters, it will catch up with you.

Vindolanda 2012 day four

From Genesis, chapter 7

"In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened."

Digging rained out for today.  Hopefully back tomorrow, but the weather this spring has been the worst in living memory.

Might manage a minor adventure, if so will post something later.