CAER: Chester Amphitheatre Environs Research Project

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...

Da nielle  finds evidence for French cuisine?  Today I was working on an area near the wall of the building, I was gradually taking down the soil and found a large amount of snail shells and evidence of charcoal. Dan was not sure if it might be a feature or if it was a waste pit like Frances and Christian have been working on next to me. I will be continuing on with this area on Tuesday until I have come to the bottom of the charcoal. Liam avoids spoilers and gets spoils: Today, for me, was generally made up of the same activity. Excavating mine and Liz's trench never seemed to end, mortar and brick becoming the new bane of our lives. Luckily the site was calm and allowed everyone to have a friendly chat while working. Whilst avoiding spoilers for the ‘Song of Ice and Fire’, I managed to find some more carved stone, bone, lead, pottery and a shaped piece of quartz possibly from a Roman ring (cool! – Ed.). I plan to enjoy the three day weekend and ...

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 soi...

For Marc, Tuesday brings bones, bones and more bones… Weather forecasters eh!.....today’s forecast, warm and hazy sun, the reality, cold drizzle ALL day! Never mind, it didn’t stop me and my little team of Chris and Lauren making impressive headway with our digging. 3 foot down and the outlined features of what could be a culvert running to a pit are beginning to show through nicely. Our trowelling also brought up another lot of goodies, well, mostly animal bone, with a little Cistercian ware thrown in, but mainly bone. Hmmm....bones. If there’s one thing the last few days of digging have revealed in plenty its these, so much so that we are all getting a little sick of the sight of them.  Good job we haven’t got a lecture this afternoon on them........ The afternoon sees us out of the rain and our damp hole and into Albion Street for a lecture on............bones!!!! A visiting lecturer from Liverpool John Moores University imparts his considerable expertise on t...