I had such a busy day today – but somehow rushing around in lovely bright sunshine is not nearly as onerous as rushing around in bleak, cloudy, drizzle! I gave 4 site tours – all to very nice and appreciative groups – and welcomed back to the fold students who had dug with me in 1997! There is an incredible network of communications which has built up since that very first excavation in 1997 when I had about 47 people on site, as opposed to 157!
With the student exam fast approaching this Saturday, all the supervisors are giving on-site revision classes, and Dan brought his stratigraphy and matrix sessions out of the stiflingly hot marquee and into the fresh air.
Open Air stratigraphy
Sequence sessions with Dan
It was a very hot afternoon, but the archaeology is moving apace. In Insula IX, Matt’s team have found the southern return of the north wall of our 50m long Iron Age hall, and Rosie and Amy have continued to work in the cesspit which has been found to cut the Iron Age well they have been working in. Exciting moment of the day was the discovery of a complete Iron Age pottery vessel in its fills – it is of a very unusual type so watch this space for more information…
A ?Gallo-Belgic pot, possible deliberately buried within the ‘closing’ fills of an Iron Age cess pit
Insula III is an amazing site to visit. I now have well over half the team working there, and the area crackles with energy. Everybody is intent on removing the Victorian backfill as fast as possible, and slowly but surely we are making progress. Everywhere you look there are now early Roman wall foundations appearing….and there is an air of suppressed excitement…..
Finally, this morning, Michael, our ‘drone’ man, spent an hour and a half taking some wonderful pictures from up high over Insula IX. All the post hole alignments are clear as day on these images – and all looks very exciting. I will share these images with you in due course.
But for now I must go and work on the lists for Week 5……Week 5?? Week 5. It’s nearly here. Stay with us until the end!
AmandaOut