Hayley, Rhianna and Helen report on Wednesday's activities

Hayley spends the day trowelling for finds:

Today we focused on excavating a medieval deposit next to the Roman road, this was a slow process of trowelling down and back, rather tedious but the only way we could collect the smaller finds. For instance, today we excavated the jaw bone of a pig with all the teeth still in situ as it were. We also spoke to some interesting people today, one guy was telling us about a construction site where they found a Roman well, he said they excavated a lot of brooches, the best I've achieved so far is a bead ;) The weather stayed fine today and the rain from the day before made the soil much more pliable.

Rhianna explains the Roman Road to the public

It’s Wednesday, Week 3, and my group continued to remove another layer from our section and finally completed it today. During this we found more pottery and bones, including a handle. We then proceeded to trowel the area to see what was underneath the loose soil and to make it more level. During this process Cat and I were singing different songs and really annoying Hayley, until she got her own back by singing 'that’s amore'. We then proceeded to create our own sample section where we found a jaw bone and a few other smaller bones before the day ended. Also in the morning it was our group's turn to talk to the public where they asked about the items we found and what time period they were from. They also asked about the features we had dug up and we showed them where the Roman Road would be and where the building and wall was.

Helen gets some practice marking finds:

Today Team D spent the morning marking finds with the site code and context number they came from. This may sound simple but was quite difficult. First the finds needed to be separated into those that were to be marked and those that weren’t. Bone and metal finds are not marked as it can damage them and crucial identification points can be hidden on bone. Then we needed to learn how to use the Harry Potter pens. This took a while but eventually we were ready to write on the finds. When we had finished we spent the rest of the morning finds washing.

Back on site in the afternoon Team D were responsible for talking to the public about the site. I enjoy this a lot however sometimes it is difficult to be pulled away from your trench. I started on a new part of the trench today and while looking for another drainage channel came across plenty of bone and pot but also a copper alloy pin and hook, a piece of lead window flashing and an iron nail. Having such luck with this area I am excited to return to it tomorrow to see what is unearthed.