Vindolanda 2014 Day Six

Off to the other end of the site today, where I am looking forward to a week of digging a very complex area.  Here is the view down deep.  (But nowhere near as deep as the dig will eventually get!).

Notice the stone/cobble path in the center....it is diving down into some earlier and deeper feature.  Next to it is an area of wooden structure, perfectly preserved after 1800 years.

Here is the area we will be addressing.  We need to bring down that shelf of rock, clay and debris down to the lower level.

Notice some huge boulders?  We sure did.  It was part of the Roman efforts to keep their structures from sinking down into the murky depths of previous fort sites.  There are by the way nine forts on this site, one atop another.  Some of the rocks got named.  Here is one I called "The Hash Brown" as it was the same shape as the greasy spuds we get for breakfast:

Various fun rock tossing aside, we were mostly shifting clay and such.  Not many artifacts to be found.  The Good Stuff is another 18 inches down.  There we will encounter an environment where organic material is preserved by being sealed off from oxygen and light.  Up on the spoil heap we can already see, discarded last week, tempting bits of wood and twigs and such.  Mmmmmm...anaerobic preservation,  the place where anything can turn up:

But the the sky opened up and rain poured down.  Washed out for the afternoon.

The rest of the week has a happier forecast.  Stay tuned as we dive down to Anaerobia.

The Nerds have a Grand Day Out

A day off from excavations.  With time on their hands a group of diggers decided to take an excursion.  Various interests were indulged.

There was a steam train involved:

Camera guys deep in discussion of the merits of various Canon products.

And of course there was a Roman fort at the end of the train ride.  This is Whitley Castle, Cumbria.  It has not really been excavated and is notable primarily for its formidable system of defensive ditches.

Absent an active excavation program local enthusiasts have done an annual "mole hill survey".  Basically this involves seeing what our rodent colleagues have turned up each spring.  They are not particularly efficient workers but they do work free.  A few bits of pottery were found today including this bit of mortaria.

All I found was this interesting cluster of beads.  A family of sheep had just wandered past.

Then home again through intermittent rain and squelchy mud.

A Grand Day Out, even if the road home was a bit muddy.  Near the end of the public foot path I encountered this sad, sad bench.

Vindolanda 2014 Day Five

The weather forecast looked dire today so we were pleased to get in the better part of a
day of excavating.  It had rained all night so we could not start straight off.  So one contingent washed pottery.  Another group did some bailing on an area of the dig site that will be active next week.  It needed it.

This is an area where multiple layers of successive forts are one atop another.  A very complex place where buildings, roads and what not are slowly sinking down into previous fort trenches.  It reminds one just a bit of Swamp Castle from Monty Python.  The efforts the Romans made to counter this process were impressive, and we shall be wrestling with some substantial rock and rubble layers next week.  But it is deep enough for that precious anaerobic preservation that keeps organic material intact.
Behold:

Wooden posts and drains.

After lunch it was back to the other end of the fort to sift through the late Roman and sub-Roman layers.  Not much for finds, a few enigmatic bits of worked iron.  The grandeur of the Empire had waned by then but the later and lesser folks did what they could.   Their efforts are sometimes hard to understand.  Have a look.

Grindstones reused as floor repairs.

Here we have huge whoppin' slabs of stone dragged in to make post Roman floor surfaces. Why on earth would they haul in these half ton lunks for such a mundane task?  In front there is a late ditch straight through a Roman road.  Did they think about the longer walk that this created?  Questions that so far lack answers.

Should be a good week ahead, weekend diversions await.

Vindolanda 2014 Day Four

I spent much of the day chasing archeological features that most would not consider to be of general interest.  (Although marvelously I did have a small bronze coin tumble out with my last trowel scrape of the day!).  So I had plenty of time for musing.  It helps make the wheel barrow runs less tedious.

Today, prompted by an odd event early on, I was thinking about things overhead.

Archeologically speaking, we know a lot about the things underfoot.  Solid, basic stuff like foundations.  Flashier stuff like mosaic floors.  Even ephemeral stuff that we would consider the equivalent of carpeting but that topic is one I hope to address another day.

But what about the things over head?  What were roofs made of in Roman forts and civilian settlements?  It is not an easy question as there seem to be multiple solutions to the age old problem of keeping the weather out.

We associate Roman buildings with reddish orange tiles.  And we do find them even at a site like Vindolanda which is almost as far from the Mediteranean world as the Romans ever got.

Here are a bunch of beat up examples outside the pot washing shed.

The other day I dug up an odd ball specimen, one that was an off color.  I understand that this was an "over kilned" specimen that was probably a reject.

Another option was slate.  Thin slabs were used, with a hole drilled in for a nail.  These roofs must have been darned heavy !

During the Roman era and of course into sub Roman times, thatched roofs were in use.  Heck, on our walk in to the site we go past a cottage that still has one.

Oh, and on our walk in today.  We heard a high pitched whining noise that seemed to be moving quickly.  Glimpsing up we saw this, which seemed to be hovering over one of my digging compatriots who was, I think, answering a call of nature.

It was a camera carrying drone !  It was being operated by a film crew who was doing a documentary on the Vindolanda fort.  Welcome to the 21st century...Drones and Old Stones.

Vindolanda 2014 Day Three

Off to another section of the rampart today, so more "de-turfing" and shoveling out "loose". Actually a fairly pleasant activity, if a little less so late in the day when it started to rain.

Although there were some intriguing stones that may evolve into a defensive feature, the day was uneventful regards small finds.  But we are always reminded of the Roman and sub Roman inhabitants, we keep finding their broken crockery.  I think the shards are at their very best visually just when they emerge from the ground:

The work is steady, with of course the mandatory UK Tea Break.  But I find a few moments to wander about the site and wonder about things.

Did the late Romans who repaired this street use colorful red roof tiles out of whimsy?

Here we have a broken bit of carved stone.  Probably it had something on it once, a statue, a tombstone, a treasured family possesion.  How would they feel if they could look far into the future and see it keeping company with a broken wheelbarrow wheel?

And a final note.  Archeology of "Sub-Roman" Britain is a newer concept.  In earlier eras much emphemeral material was just torn through and tossed aside as the "more important" temples and headquarters buildings were eagerly dug down into.  So much was lost.  The traces of these times are there, but so delicate.  Here we have a post Roman floor surface.  By then they build not in stone but in wood.  Notice the dark sooty tinge?  At some point the Dark Ages were briefly lit by a spectacular fire....

Vindolanda 2014 Day Two

Another day of fair weather.  Mostly I was continuing to define the edge of the rampart, necessary if unexciting donkey work.  But we did have one unique advantage today.  Because the area was difficult to run a wheelbarrow through we had the site's loader parked on the other side of the wall !  We got some jealous looks....

After a bit we were diverted by an unexpected feature that was running away from the wall/rampart.  No clue as to what it was, but it needed exploring.  After a morning mostly free of artifacts a few "bits and bobs" turned up.

A "game counter".  At least that is what these hand carved bits of worn out pottery get called.  Their exact function is unclear.

No, not another phallus.  This is iron and was some sort of bolt with a loop on it.  And of course various bits of pottery.  A nice fragment here, it had knocked around a long time before ending up in a post Roman mystery feature.

Vindolanda 2014 Day One

After the now traditional pub gathering the night before an enthusiastic, if slightly bedraggled band of diggers hit the trenches.

The main effort at the moment involves trying to figure out what the post Roman "Dark Agers" were up to once the Empire went bust in the early 400s.

Above is a primitive floor surface from the sub Roman days.  Slopped together with whatever fell off the decaying buildings.

An odd pit dug right through a late Roman road.  No plausible theories as to its purpose.

I am currently digging in the ramparts, the packed dirt that fronted the inside aspect of the fort wall.  Generally not the most productive areas archeologically but important in trying to
figure out the late history of the place.

Of course sometimes the interesting stuff does turn up, a few years back an intact shrine to
the god Jupiter Dolicheus turned up smack in the middle of a packed clay rampart!

Small finds tend to be infrequent.  But I did turn up this sad, crumbly ghost of a silver coin.  It was probably once a good quality coin....it was bad for the Emperor's longevity to pay the troops in skunk money.

Ah, but soon I hope to get over to the other side of the site where a deep trench has been put down into dark, funky anaerobicly preserved layers.  Things come up from there in much better shape than my sorry excuse for a coin.  Check out sheep skull that turned up there recently !