Vindolanda Day Three - It Rained.

It's England.  Sometimes you dig, sometimes it rains.  Today it rained enough that you shouldn't do archaeology.  You can't trowel mud.  And pushing wheelbarrows up and down slippery surfaces is certainly not ideal.

So we had a lecture in the morning.  Most of you would not find a discussion of how one records layers of archaeology to be interesting but it actually was.  And you need to be organized to make sense of some sites.  Here for instance is the deeper trench next to where I am working.

This is a causeway going over a whopping great fort ditch.  Boulders, clay, a layer of cut turf, and finally stonework. With a site of this complexity things are always sinking into other, earlier things.

Here is a drain leading out of a Roman toilet.  Open sewers were not considered a big deal back then.  I understand that an expert from University came today and took samples.  By using latest DNA tech he hopes to analyze fecal specimens and learn things.  Male/female, country of origin, etc.  

An odd little feature near where I have been excavating.  The little pillars supported an elevated floor.  Hot air would be piped in underneath supplying a very comfortably warm house.  Or in this case, little room.  It's purpose is the subject of speculation.

The forecast is better tomorrow, so I'll be hiking back down the road to the site for what we hope is a full day of interesting stuff.  Along my morning walk the walls grow moss.  No moss grows on me.

Vindolanda Day Two - Jacks and Jackdaws

Weather was better than predicted today so we completed the removal of that 17th century cobbled farm yard.  Interestingly the cobbles were laid over a layer of lime.  There were several lime kilns nearby.  The farmer would rob stone out of the Roman fort, use some of it for buildings and such, but then presumably would have additional altars, inscriptions and fancy stuff burned to make lime....which he used for his low quality construction project.    We move on to hopefully more interesting layers in the days ahead.

Actually one interesting artifact did pop up from this much later area.  Here:

It is, of all things, a jack.  The date is unclear but I'd guess 18th or 19th century.  Heck, jacks were still around when I was a wee lad.  The actual game of jacks is interestingly of considerable antiquity.  In Greek and Roman times it was played with knucklebones of sheep.  Like these:

Game play involved dice as well.  Perhaps the old saying "roll them bones" refers to both the actual knuckle bones and to the dice which could be made of various substances in Roman times.     On the subject of jacks we had a visitor at lunch today.

Also a jack I suppose.  This is one of the birds that hangs around begging for crumbs.  It is a jackdaw.  This is a relative of the magpie, and like them it has a fondness for shiny objects that is steals and flies off with.  Something along those lines apparently happened in season three of The Detectorists!

As we hopefully leave modern times behind us, a few more images.

I tried to frame the head archaeologist in this 1970's beer pull ring but could not quite get him lined up!

And for my digging pals here and Absent, two images of the same bit of pottery.

Hey, looks Roman.  Nice bit of Samian ware!

But, when you flip it over....

Salt glaze interior.  Decidedly newer although that could be anything from the 1600's to last week at Ikea.

Deluge predicted tomorrow.  I've saved up a few more pictures of "bits and bobs"

Military Archaeology - Full Circle

Revetments circa 150 AD.  Turf blocks used to form a rampart. Vindolanda, on the Hadrianic frontier of northern Britannia.

Similar construction using sandbags.  Circa 1916. Wychaete Belgium.

At the moment the site is in a transitional state.  Some projects from last week are being tidied up, some big new areas are being prepped for a major downward effort in the days ahead.  Here is where we are digging, remarkably it has everything on display.  In the far area are deep areas of 1st century AD deposits.  In the foreground, some areas being de-turfed where modern ball point pens and 1970's era beer can tabs are being unearthed.

My current assignment is sort of in between.  It is the courtyard of a 17th century farmhouse that was on the site later.  It has to be excavated and recorded before deeper work can be done.  

Yes, it is just clearing up an area of pounded together rock but I remind myself that a site from the 1600's would be older than almost anything in America outside of St. Augustine and Jamestown.

More of the same tomorrow, dire weather predicted Wednesday, but interesting days and digs beyond that.

Vindolanda Redux

Dutiful readers of Detritus of Empire might have noticed an absence of postings in 2018 from the excavations at Roman Vindolanda.  I found the Hill 80 dig to be a great deal of fun and hope you also enjoyed the change of pace. (I note that the link to the Hill 80 site has for a cover The Best Work Photo ever of our team taking a selfie gathered around a live British 8 inch shell!).

But today I grab my travel bag and hop a plane for Northumberland.  This time of year the morning sun comes in low and bright, and by next posting the long shadow I will be in will be of Hadrian's Wall at dawn.

Much has changed in the 12 years since I started making the trek.  What was once a quirky rustic inn habituated by back packers and farmers has become a tidy gastropub for city dwellers on holiday.  The spirit of the previous, cantankerous Liverpudlian innkeeper lingers on in odd corners but it is overall a less fun place for me.  Still, they have honored the traditional excavator's discount.  And now the showers work.*  

The excavations have been up and running for a month now and I have been getting updates.  The main "project" this year involves digging out a section of the fort's ditch to see what fell, or was tossed, into it.  This entails a combination of pick axe and rubble wrangling...followed by careful trowel work when the delicate layers of anaerobic preservation are reached.

After so many years of doing this I am less excitable.  Sure, you can never be entirely sure what is in the next few inches under your feet but with experience comes fewer surprises.  I'm quite good at "reading" soil to look for changes.

But there are other senses to utilize.  One thing about the anaerobic layers is that, while their depth varies, their odor does not.  Hopefully the moment will come where a few stray whiffs of the deep, funky smell tease me, then the very tip of the mattock breaks through into black, noisome layers of moss, manure and perfectly preserved artifacts.

A few pictures from the crews working the weeks ahead of me:

1800 year old fabric.

Roman bling, a jet finger ring.

Alas Poor BowWowRick....I knew him well Horatio...  Dog skull from a Pre-Hadrianic level.

Said to be a Roman game board.  Found near a bath house which makes sense as these were something akin to social clubs and various gaming counters are also found in such places.  It does also look a bit like the sort of pattern seen on wall/floor surfaces with plastered decoration but I assume the folks on site have the better take on this.

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* Last time I was there the showers worked but the wifi signal could only be found in a tiny corner of the pub.  Posting may be haphazard for a bit until I figure out where the impish wisps of internet signal can be captured.  In the event of internet Dark Ages, the official facebook site for Vindolanda seems to be kept up nicely this season..

The Dog Has Plans

Dog will dig holes.

Premise:  The Humans have More Treats.

Hypothesis:  The Treats are in the sky, probably being carried by the small silver birds that fly way up there.

Test of Hypothesis:  Barking and Howling at the birds has not caused them to drop any treats.

Conclusion:  Ineffective so far but continue barking and howling just in case.

Second hypothesis: The Treats are buried in the ground.

Test of Hypothesis:  Dig holes.  Low grade Treats are occasionally found.

Conclusion:  More holes should be dug.

What Dog Wants

Dog wants Truck to Go.

Go where?  Anyplace other than the Vet.
Go why?  Does not understand the question.
Go when?  Now please.  To the Dog it is always Now.  Go Truck.  Now please.   Go Now.

Tipsy Sons of Norway!

The starting point for today's little history lesson sits in the living room at my brother's house.  It was purchased many years ago at an antique store in northern Minnesota.

It appears to be some kind of podium, although the short height and the flat top suggest it was used not to hold the notes of somebody speaking in Norwegian but rather a statue, or some other bit of decor.  The emblem is that of The Sons of Norway.  

This version of their logo was in use from 1901 to 1922 and references the earlier name of the organization, Sonnen af Norge.  It got me thinking about the beginnings of this fraternal organization of stoic Scandinavians; and got me to pick up a story that I had first encountered many years ago.

If you are not from Minnesota the mental picture you have of Midwestern, Scandinavian descended folks is likely heavily colored by Garrison Keillor.  His "Prairie Home Companion" show was a generally affectionate, somewhat accurate depiction of stolid, serious small town life.  "Norwegian Batchelor Farmers" were a staple.  Sometimes there was mention of "The Sons of Knute", a thinly disguised iteration of The Sons of Norway.

To his credit - and in his younger days Keillor was indeed a genius level satirist - he portrays the Sons of Knute as being more than a bit willing to tip a glass.  Here for instance is a song about their annual Christmas dinner.

I'd have to say this is spot on because the Sons of Norway basically got their start in the saloons of my old neighborhood on the North Side of Minneapolis.

THIS short history of the original Lodge lists the 18 founding members.  Two seem to have been very transient members.  Of the other 16 one quarter were saloon keepers!  James Peterson and Louis Stokke were respectively the first Vice President and Treasurer of the Sons of Norway.  They were also partners in a saloon near the intersection of Broadway and 20th.  This was the epicenter of the early organization with other founding members being millworkers and shopkeepers nearby.

In the 1890s it was fairly common for saloons to have bottles with their name embossed in the glass.  Perhaps this was for take home bottles.  In case you forgot where you had been?  Above is a nice example from Peterson and Stokke "Fine Wines and Liquors".  The address on the bottle is 2029 Washington Avenue.  The same address given for the meeting that led to the founding of the organization!

Below is another example from founding member Ole Lodgord.  "Wines, Liquors & Cigars".  

There is at least one other early bottle associated with the Sons of Norway.  In a newspaper article I read many years ago I found reference to The Sons of Norway band playing at Roman and Person's Hall.  Roman and Person was another saloon partnership with bottles much like the above.  They were also near the intersection of Washington and 20th (now Broadway).  It seems as if it was a hopping place in the 1890's, supposedly stoic Norwegian inhabitants notwithstanding.