Geophysics day

Members had a very interesting days instruction in geophysical survey at the weekend from a local company called GeoFlo (look them up). We will have some more information on this very soon.

Drunken builders?

Here is a suggestion as to why the Drift Road building is skew-whiff.

 Any other suggestions? Before anyone suggests it, our measurement were accurate!

Mystery find

Anyone any ideas as to what this may be. It feels like lead by harder, so could be mixed with another metal. Unfortunately it is unstrat. But I would suggest it is Roman. See our Facebook page for other suggestions.

Pot dating news

Our pot expert has informed us that due to form and fabrics the pottery we found is Late Iron Age/Early Roman in date. Added to the profile of the ditch and other finds, such as the building material, it is more probable that the pot is of the latter period.

Four different fabrics types were identified including, Calcareous (Limestone inclusions), Sandy, Greywares and a small amount of Black Burnished Wares. These are all moderately coarse fabrics with burnished and smoothed surfaces. These sherds are all in a fair condition.

A moderate number of diagnostic sherds were also recovered including necked and bead rim jars, lug handles and pedestal bases. These forms were all made between the Late Iron Age through to the Early Romano-British period and associated with the plain decoration and surface finishes this dates the assemblage. With the lack of finewares and no imports, this coarseware assemblage is fairly low status and the vessels suggest a domestic setting with vessels that were probably made using locally sourced materials.

It would be logical to suggest that the ceramics available locally would be used by the incoming military. But at the same time it may be argued that perhaps the features we dug are earlier, from just before the conquest.

That is why digging this type of site is vital for the research of this pre- and post- conquest time period.