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...

Jack E is finding a bit of rain makes things easier in trench 8… Rain has finally graced us with its presence. After many days of harsh sunlight, excavation can now continue at a somewhat normal pace. With the soil now removable at a faster pace Team A has finally begun to enter the next context. Showing brick, bone and clay, things are looking promising in the trench. Morale is good because of the progress being made, so throughout the trench things are at an all-time high. It's Friday - ending the week on a high! The archaeology in trench 8 looking super clear as Dan gives his end of week round-up. Kayleigh reports from trench 4… Today started off gloomy with light rain but this was followed by a sunny afternoon, so waterproofs and sunscreen were both needed! Me, Connor and Abby started to excavate in between the ditch and the Roman Road to reveal yet more of the road. Whilst Holly M, Kimberley and Jess worked hard by cleaning a huge section of the trench revealin...

Holly M and Jack D report from trench 4... Holly M : Today we have carried on excavating the ditch and have been looking for the gulley for the Roman road as well as looking for the cut of the ditch. We also spent the morning interacting with various spectators, all with an interest in what we were looking for and whether we had found any ‘treasure’ 😂. It had been a long day in the sun and it was a nice end to the day when we were surprised with ice lollies to help us cool off after a hard day’s work. Hard work in the sun! Jack D:  Today the weather was boiling even before we arrived on site, and we had to put sun-cream on before anything started to prevent sunburn. Our group began the day bailing out one of the pits alongside the ditch we have been excavating as it had once again filled with groundwater, which wasn't too bad as there was less than previous days. Once the water was all but bucketed out, we began to take down the baulk section between the sections th...

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...

Sophie’s team has mattock mania… Today Teams A and Bee were tasked with mattocking trench 8 to determine whether we had reached a new context. The mattocking was hard work but we all cooled off in the breaks in the shade after the first full sunny day in Grosvenor Park! Finally  some sunny weather for excavation in the Park! Alex  discusses dust and discovery… The mattocks were out for the A-team on a roasting day. The dry mud caused hassle but once in the swing of it the A-team and team B continued on with their work finally getting past most of the backfill and into the new contexts. Discoveries were plentiful with large pieces of bone and pottery being found. Throughout the day the A-team engaged with the interested public answering questions and showing our finds. However, the heat was a difficult opponent causing much needed water and shade breaks, yet the A-team continued through this and completed the day. Now the A-team is in preparation for the next day of...

Today was day five of the excavations here at Grosvenor park. In Trench IV there has been some interesting developments, with most of the soil from last years excavations being cleaned up, we were able to start uncovering some of the new archaeology yet to be investigated. In the front left corner of the trench, large, thought to be Roman stones have been removed, this is to see whether earlier contexts are beneath them, on removal all sides of the stones were cleaned and examined in case of an inscription.    Elsewhere in trench IV more work has been undertaken just to the side of the Roman road and exciting amounts of Samian pottery have been found including a lovely lid of a pot. These finds along with obvious collections of stones suggests an area of civilian occupation near the road, we cannot wait to keep exploring this area tomorrow! In trench VIII, more cleaning up, trowelling and mattocking went underway to better understand the post medieval and civil war...

In trench IV, we continued to uncover the Roman road as well as removing spoil still within the trench. on the finds front, Roman Samian ware pottery was found including an interesting piece of patterned Roman Samian ware. Many people were very interested in looking at the Roman finds. Some abraded and some residual finds in Trench IV More pieces of ceramics were discovered amongst the deepest section of the trench which was filled with water and had to be sponged continuously throughout the day. Part of a pit from last year - full of water and Roman pottery! As a whole site there was a lot of public interest which was met by friendly archaeologists who answered eager questions from the public. We are excited to continue digging tomorrow where we are planning to record and lower a section of trench 4, as well as continuing the quest for the Roman road. Becca and Sophie

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

It is the second day of the excavation and we have yet to completely get through the back fill from the excavation of the previous year, yet we have still uncovered some exciting finds and features, which we are hoping to fully explore next week.  So far, our favourite find is a current penny which has made us one whole pence richer than we were yesterday, I suppose the musket balls and animal bones we uncovered were pretty cool too. We are still suffering from the looming threat of the park's squirrels but hope to befriend the little blackbird that frequently visits our humble trench. While locals show an interest in engaging with the archaeology, their dogs seem much more enthusiastic to help us dig and uncover bones, for which we are grateful. The one thing we learnt today is that sometimes not even factor 100 sun cream is strong enough to protect our delicate shoulders from the unforgiving sun (Thank you Emma for lending us this sun cream yet it was not strong eno...

It is the beginning of a new year for excavations within Grosvener Park, Chester!  The task for our first day of the excavation was uncovering and preparing the site in anticipation for the four-week-long dig. To start off we were all in excitement with energy running high in the early hours of the day up until the sheer scale of work was recognised. However, our drive was quickly restored after a brief lunch break and the consumption of well earnt treats brought to site by one of the Archaeology lecturers from the university. Shortly after lunch we encountered a light spell of rain, as unfortunate as this was we did not let this hold us back as we powered through and soon enough the sun came back out and we were happily getting along with the work on the site. Overall, with smiles and a great deal of team work we were able to clear the site in preparation for the four-week-long excavation. We can easily say with everyone happy and pleased about the hard work we ach...

Today saw more periodic drenching of the team.  Whilst some escaped to the relative dry of the finds processing room, others battled it out as long as they could on site. Here's hoping our Open Day on Tuesday is drier than this! Adam Today was focused around post-excavation processes for finds, because archaeology does not end after an artefact is recovered. The first stage  is to wash the finds; this is a labor of love as it requires a delicate touch and patience, but only certain finds can be washed such as bone and pottery as other materials, for example iron, can be destroyed if washed. After the finds are washed and dried it's on to the next stage in the process, which for us is to mark the finds with the relevant site code so that if misplaced they can be returned to their proper place. This is a tricky and delicate endeavor that requires using waterproof ink, a fountain pen and a steady hand. Alas, I lack the latter so this was a struggle for me at first, but...

After a bit of a slow start quite a large assemblage of finds has been retrieved over the last 3 and a half weeks and predictably this week the excavation of part of a ditch running north/south across the site is producing bags and bags of animal bone and pottery. Last year’s backfill produced an amazing range of finds: clay tobacco pipes, lead shot, fragments of Samian pottery, as well as Westerwald stoneware and post-medieval Spanish olive jar and a variety of other post-medieval wares, including slipware dish fragments, blackware vessels and pieces of Cistercian ware cups. It’s interesting to see what ended up on last year’s spoil heap rather than in finds trays but it is easy to miss fragments when it’s wet and muddy. Once the backfill had been removed the quantity of clay tobacco pipes found fell considerably and stopped completely after the last of the 17th century demolition deposits were removed from the south side of the trench. It looks as if we are firmly in the 16th ce...

Ben gets to grips with geophysics: Today began as every other day it seems, wet and cold. This morning me, Andrew and Dan were given the task of clearing a section of the site where it was believed the main wall would continue across the site. Needless to say this was not very pleasant as the area was covered with pools of water and mud, after this was cleared we began to trowel at the area, and started to uncover the wall. However after break we did not get a chance to finish our job as we then had the task of surveying an area using geophysics, more specifically a resistivity meter. This process was quite enjoyable and was certainly a new experience for all of us. Christian talks us through the last full day on site (boo! L ) After almost four weeks at Grosvenor Park today was the penultimate day of the dig and the last day of any excavation on site, so everyone was busy finishing digging and recording the features before the terram is laid and the tren...

Ryan’s plans are scuppered by the changeable weather… As the last day approaches it's all hands on deck as everybody is trying to finish the features and other areas of interest before Friday comes. The weather has been vile over the past few days starting mostly with the open afternoon which happened yesterday. To everyone's surprise, we had   quite a few people turning up, even in the continuous heavy downpour of rain. As for today, the morning was sunny and the afternoon was dull and overcast until the last hour when, yes, the heavens opened AGAIN. The context that Michael and I have been digging has finally been finished, removing the mortar and brick layer. We used the last hour of the day to plan the feature but with the dumpy level ready and set up it decided to rain so we left it until tomorrow. Group C finished the last session of finds washing this morning and we now have a completed list for the portfolio. All in all another day on site however with the end lo...

Rafi... Today has been the coldest and rainiest day of the four weeks, but possibly the funniest! In the morning, my team went to the finds store for the final finds session in which we finished our "finds record sheet" with the help of Gill and many interesting books. We definitely have gained a lot of practice and we realized we can easily recognise most of the artefacts in our trays. After that, we carried on washing and marking some finds, while Gill explained what we were doing and what we had found. In the afternoon all the team were on site for an exciting (and wet) open day. Despite the rain, many people gathered around (we were really pleased to see people from past weeks coming back for the open day). We showed them the site and how we worked (digging and troweling), we displayed the best artefacts (pottery, glass, etc.) found also in past years, and we did some washing of finds directly on site, to make people see how it worked. Despite the rain, i...