Day 8 metalling and metal detectors…Jack and Pauline report on the start of a new week and uncovering a new section of Roman road...

Jack…

It's the start of a new week and after a successful week last week our team was ready to continue with the further excavation of trench 7. This meant the continued excavation and clean-up of the newly revealed Roman road found only on Friday by our team! It was really exciting to be able to uncover a feature that hadn’t been seen since the time it was last used during the Roman occupation of Britain. The road has also already produced some amazing finds including decorated pieces of Samian ware and a copper-alloy coin! The coin will hopefully be in good enough condition to be able to roughly date the road by the figure on the coin. Hopefully with further excavation more of the road and its size will be found and allow interpretation of its usage. Let's just hope the rain doesn't hinder us in finding any more exciting finds!

Pauline…

Today Colin the metal-detectorist came to work with us. He is a good metal-detectorist who works with the archaeologists and understands their processes, is aware of the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and would never detect on land without permission. The public that came to see us today were watching him working, and, as it should be, we highlighted to them what makes a good detectorist, versus a 'nighthawk' (or 'thief' as someone succinctly renamed them). We also try to explain how we work responsibly, that no find is ignored, all of the site is planned and photographed, and how we are careful to restore the site after we've finished.

Colin helps identify any metal artefacts ready for excavation or track down any that may have been missed in our spoil

On a lighter note Colin found lots more lead shot for us, a lovely Medieval buckle, and a small section of lead window with the glass adjacent, amongst other objects. Thank you Colin!

Lead from a leadlight window?