CAER: Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project

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...

Abigail’s group make a nice find in trench 4… Today we continued to dig down into the next context alongside the Roman road. Upon doing so we discovered a range of Roman pottery, building materials and animal bone. The discovery of a copper alloy Roman coin by Kayleigh was also a highlight. A copper alloy coin dating to the Roman period. Keep an eye out for more info towards the end of the dig! Alfie’s group find a big cat… Today Group C’s main job was using tools such as the mattocks, shovels and hand trowels to slowly work down the section in the supposed Anglo-Saxon ditch whilst occasionally cleaning it to see if there were any changes in the soil’s context. The main kinds of contexts we worked through today were mixed clay soils and a grey silty deposit. In terms of finds, many sherds of pottery, including samian ware and black burnished ware, were found along with ceramic building material all dating to the Roman period. Lots of animal bones were found as well. Mos...

The cannon backfire, before being excavated This was a productive morning in both trenches as headway was made digging into the ditch at the back of trench IV and much more excitingly the early modern feature in trench VIII was finally determined to be a cannon backfire because of the residue found on the end facing the Chester walls. Wasn’t long though until work began to remove it and excavate the context underneath Trench IV, after the cannon backfire had been excavated Find of the morning, a bone dice on top of a sandstone brick near the cannon backfire. This joins a matching set of five found nearby last year. The afternoon was also productive in both trenches, however, in trench IV we had a bit too much enthusiasm. During the early afternoon it took a while to get things going again after a blissful lunch break in the sun, to which we were joined by a group of Mexican school children keen to learn about what we were doing and what we had found. This session contin...

Day 12 of the dig was certainly the hottest so far (a pinkening 24℃) and possibly the most intriguing day. Numerous finds from the Roman road today have begun to tell a part of the story of life in Roman Chester.   Several Roman iron nails were found within the context of the Roman road one of them may have been rather enthusiastically mattocked through, along with a melon bead and a lead spindle whorl.  Across the site, preparations were made to dig two sections through a possible ditch, which also recovered some large cattle bones. A black tessera was also recovered, could there possibly be a villa nearby? Samian ware and Black-Burnished ware pottery sherds were also frequent finds from the baked concrete like earth, which was subsequently dumped over the EDGE of the spoil heap upon its removal. The day was intersected by the Bone Lab a crash course in the bones and bits of beasts and how to draw and identify our muddy pieces of past creatures by the lovely Ian, a ...

Today was day three of the Grosvenor park dig, and almost all the back fill has been cleared. Sadly, the bank holiday sunshine didn’t stick around for us as we continued prepping the trenches for the excavation, with the ducks seeming to enjoy the rain much more than we did. Despite this, when we weren’t taking shelter in the pavilion, we were discovering more of Chester’s historic past. Over in Trench IV, further evidence of the Roman occupation was uncovered by Kelly, in the form of a small piece of samian ware, bearing a maker’s mark. Meanwhile, over in Trench VIII, the day was orientated towards identifying the features of the context, of which the rain helpfully cleaned. Amongst these was an in-situ brick feature, the purpose of which is still to be discovered… Emma V