Breakfast a la Insula IX
IT IS NOT RAINING! Another successful day on site: by the end of today all of our kabins are in place. We have 6 loos – much welcomed – and our water is connected and tested courtesy of Site Technician Jim Harriss and Shane Benson’s university department. Jim is invaluable as he connects up the generator to our kabins…..we are now in touch. The infrastructure is building.
Today its all about Insula III – we are digging a number of test pits to establish the depth of topsoil and the archaeology beneath, as the JCB arrives tomorrow. So we all head out to the fields of Insula III. It is a truly beautiful location – and interesting to see the Roman Town from a different viewpoint after so many years in Insula IX. We feel higher up somehow, and the South Gate is very visible. I enjoy the feeling that we are right in the centre of the town, just a stone’s throw from the beating heart of a Roman town – the forum.
Ready to roll
The first turf is cut
Nick and Jon in action…sorry Dan, cut your head off!
Wetting the head of Insula III
Tools of our trade
Jon’s boots
By tea break we have opened 6 test pits, each a meter and a half square. The depth to archaeology appears fairly standard – between 0.3 and 0.4m – but oh my goodness the soil we dig through is tough! Stony and unforgiving. Is it Victorian backfill? At the moment we believe so…..
Later this morning Dave Thornley, a geophysics technician from the School of Human and Environmental Sciences at the University of Reading, arrives with his Ground Penetrating Radar kit. Dave worked with Dr. John Creighton on the Silchester and Environs Geophysics project a few years ago – and it is John’s geophysics which has given us the blueprint for our work at Insula III. Dave is keen to try GPR on the area of our Insula III trench – and Rory works with him all day to achieve this plot.
Dave and the GPR
Rory and Dave with the GPR cart
Su uncovering the East-West street in her Insula III test pits
Day’s End