Category: Boxford Big Dig 2015 (Page 2 of 6)

A busy weekend was had by all and a rest day on Monday was very welcome.

Janet and Gill part of the weekend team processing finds – the other two not in the photo were Helen and Liz. This is the back office otherwise known as the Heritage Centre in Boxford.

Quite a lot to work through without what is on site!

One special tegula or Roman tile – nearly complete with a paw print and if you look carefully at the bottom you will see the maker’s mark or signature- a kind of semi-circle.

Believed to be a plunge pool in a bath suite from trench 1. At the moment it looks more like a paddling pool! Needs a bit more digging! You can see the special pink coloured water proofing plaster that the Romans used.

Cleaning walls in trenches 1,3 and 4 so that external and internal walls are clearly defined. Here Agata and Freya.

Roger in trench 4 – the smaller of the two buildings.

Tina also in trench 4

And so are Jim, Richard, Tony and Nancy

Photos courtesy of Helen and Joy.

What a difference a day makes! Thunder, lightning and an absolute deluge made everyone dive for cover in the marquee…………..well almost!

Richard in his wet weather gear trying to start a new fashion! After all what was plastic invented for?

Harry won an archaeology competition set by BARG and earned a day on site; so in between showers, he had a go at everything – digging, pot washing, metal detecting and finding stuff. He was particularly interested in the tile with a paw print. (Must have been a lot of dogs on the loose in Roman times as we have found quite a few with paw prints.)  He…… and his dad lasted all day despite the weather. At the end Matt presented him with his certificate.

Jim also found a lot of cbm in trench 4 – one piece especially stood out – an imbrex with an unusual signature of the maker – it looks a little like a fish or an eye!

Photos courtesy of Lindsey and Joy

Some stunning photos of the site from Richard’s drone…………….the three trenches (top right) are across the main villa. The biggest of the cluster of excavations (bottom left) is the secondary building/villa.

Jim – in a hole again – this time in trench 4 the smaller building. He always finds something special!

Continuing work in trench 3 – the main villa

What is this? Tom and Agata are puzzled.

Looks like a large bone with a curved surface….will cover it up for tonight and get Matt to look at it in the morning!

Gary and Jack (not in the picture) have dug this trench 9 and made it immaculate. It is now finished and Matt is showing Gary how to accurately plot the cut using Cotswold’s GPS system.

Daily briefing from Matt – Trench 3 beautifully excavated by Agata and Roger. It shows the pad which would have supported one of two of the gate posts immediately opposite the main villa and the wall connecting it to the smaller building.

Unusual under leg technique by Tom!

Freya and Geordie cleaning back trench in 2

Mum Katharine exploring the archaeology with youngest son Jasper – our youngest volunteer yet!

With Joel and Emmeline not far behind

Jill one of the team of six pot washers today  – needed to keep up with the number of finds coming off the site!

And one of Jill’s items after a wash…………a dog paw print in a tile……….pads and claw marks clearly visible…….must have been a large dog though!

Much needed lunch break

Excitement in trench 3 in the main villa as Alice uncovers more tesserae.

Maybe we can now call it a mosaic floor as opposed to a tessellated floor as there is more than one colour!

Photos courtesy of Lindsey and Jill.

As he said the photos give a flavour of the day overall for someone new to archaeology. Photos taken last Saturday.

9am – site office

The workforce to designated areas with buckets and tools.

Said bucket with kneeler – most important!

This is how to do it……………….

Andy’s bit of the trench.

Some of his finds

They look better after washing and are more recognisable.

Down buckets for lunch – 1pm

Bramble the Labrador, living in hope!

It’s a dog’s life!

Alice and the pot washing team having a break for lunch

Looks like a brick floor tile……………. but it may turn out to to be something else!

A delighted Matt with a part of the tessellated floor in the main villa.

Photos courtesy of Andy, Westbrook

It’s been a busy and productive couple of days. Janet and Pru busy were washing finds on day 1- a messy but essential job. David fetched finds from the field and was a master water carrier for the pot washers! On day 2 Janet, Jenny, Joy, Gill  and John did the honours.

Pot washing is not just for the fairer sex – here John is making a good fist of it with the rubber gloves provided!

And Gill is taking the worst of the mud off the cbm before washing.

Saturday – and volunteers start clearing the loose from trench 4 – the smaller of the two buildings – all of which has been opened up by the digger.

And one of our resident metal detectorists, John, checks the spoil heap for metal finds.

But in trench 4 itself, this little gem is found. It is a child’s bracelet made of copper alloy. It is undamaged – quite remarkable in the circumstances.

Tina in trench 4 is uncovering the external wall. One piece of window glass has been found in this trench so far.

Steve and Abigail also in trench 4 working along the wall line opposite Tina.

JCB driver Scuddie – relieved to have finished on site!! He made a difficult job look easy. Matt acting as the banksman from Cotswold Archaeology looks on before  heading off to supervise work in the trenches.

Pam finding  paving in trench 1 in the main villa building.

One of our younger volunteers and one of the keenest – John in trench 1 – he has been on site for 3 days so far

Jim, Philippa, Gary and Steve totally engrossed in trench 1. Four pieces of window glass were found in this trench ………….

……………….And one nice piece of decorated glass.

Remember that child’s bracelet – this is what it looked like the cleaned up by Lindsey.

But the biggest surprise so far was finding a tessellated floor in trench 3 of the main villa.

You see before you a happy man! Matt was really thrilled to see this and everyone stopped work to take a look. It is rare to find an undamaged section like this and we hope that more will have survived. Although we found individual tesserae on the Hoar Hill site, we never found an undamaged section like this.

Photos courtesy of Lindsey, Steve and Joy.

Last day before volunteer diggers arrive.  A ducky day was had by all – as 15 ducks came to view the site and tuck into any spare lunch!!

The serious picture below shows the walls of the smaller of the two buildings being uncovered by the digger.

Photos courtesy of Lindsey.

What a difference a day makes!! Thankfully the weather was great today and the site has dried out well. We have been able to catch up on the planned geophysical work before the JCB work tomorrow. So resitivity and magnetometry has been finished on the main villa and second smaller building. Trenches are marked out for the JCB on the buildings too. Everyone has had a chance to try out the different pieces of equipment and got excellent results. So providing the weather is as forecast tomorrow, we shall be able to start digging the buildings on Saturday and processing finds. It’s been lovely working on the site today in the sunshine – it is a beautiful site with spectacular distant views set at the top of a lovely valley. You can see why the Romans picked the spot!

Typical Summer Weather!! But the forecast is better for tomorrow!!

Steve and Mike – two of the brave heart team slogging their way through the smaller of the two buildings under investigation with the resitivity meter

The Sartorial Elegance of our Lindsey!

We will start digging on Saturday so if you plan to come – great ……but just drop an email to Joy joy@appleton.uk.net Look forward to seeing you.

Day -4. Work has started preparing the field for the upcoming excavation. The marquee has been erected, loos installed and once the total station arrived we were able to start putting the poles in place which form the grid within which the trenches are located. Despite heavy downpours of rain we even got the geophys started with the first few squares of magnetometry.  Despite the weather we were very pleased with the progress we made but fear tomorrow might be a bit less productive due to even worse conditions being forecast. It looks a bit better from Thursday so fingers crossed.

Lindsey