Day 12 marks the start of an exciting new week…

Sammy reports from Trench 4 and the continuing case of the mystery ditch…Today's activities built upon what was achieved last week, the lowering of the ditch fill to expose more of the wide Roman/early-Medieval cut. Amongst the deposit filling this cut we found a variety of material, mostly animal bone and Roman pottery, particularly Samian and Black Burnished Ware. In recent days we have found bone which is believed to belong to a juvenile pig (pictured). Note the size of the bones, in particular the jaw bone, along with the black appearance due to discolouration from the surrounding sediment.

Pig bones from the ditch fill

Due to the trench now being entirely below the natural water-level we are finding conditions difficult. Jack has thus far best summarised the weight of the waterlogged 'sludge' as being "the heaviest thing in the world". Only time will tell if conditions will improve!

Jessica gets a drier spot to work on… Today was a relatively quiet day on site, this is mainly because my team today only consisted of two members due to various illnesses and injuries. Despite the lack of people, we managed to achieve quite a lot. My focus today was on cleaning the Roman road to expose the stones that were still covered to make them visible and defined, the task, although sounding simple, was quite challenging as the soil was very tough as a result of the warm weather. Amongst the soil I found a hobnail which was used for Roman boots to give them more traction and strength, this impressed one of the site supervisors, Dave, a lot!

The cobbled surface of the Roman road running through our trench.

Sophie keeps busy with Team bee… Today team bee was tasked with recording Trench 8 in the morning by completing both context sheets and plan drawings. In the afternoon, we washed more finds and completed some finds records. We were also blessed with a site visit from a lovely fluffy dog! 😍

Getting a closer look at those finds!

Alex and the A-team... were back on finds in the morning, working on our recognition skills – looking at pottery, glass and building material. The day was pleasant which was helpful when we re-joined the trench in the afternoon. We worked first with the dumpy level to record heights on a plan of a context drawn by team B. We followed up by beginning to make a plan of our own, finishing the day with our first 5x5 completed. The A-team are excited to continue excavating this context over the coming days!

Making a record of the finds we have excavated, washed and marked.