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. 

AGM

We had our AGM last week and we gave ourselves a pat on the back for all we have achieved in 2014 at Nether Compton and all the events we have organised. We have many more members due to the dynamic progress we have made as a group. The outstanding achievement was the HLF bid and successful outcome that allowed us to dig at NC. We hope to go back this year and do more work in the village. We have plenty of events coming up, so keep looking in here and at our Facebook page for all the information and pics from DDCAG.

Spot the Pot

DD members visited the store of the Dorset County Museum to see the pot in which the Nether Compton hoard was found. As can be seen it is highly decorated in an almost modern fashion.

Luckily some of the 22,500+ coins stuck to the inner surface as the majority were sold off without record, until we had them recorded with the landowners permission. The marks are clearly visible.

 Some of the members inspecting the pot. They also had the chance to see other collections not normally on show to the public.

 Thanks to DCM for this private show.

End of Trench 2

Digging the ditch in Trench 2 came to an end this week and it has been photographed and recorded.

By chance we have dug in an area where there is a 'causeway' of natural stone that has been left in situ. It looks as if two gangs have been working toward each other and left this stone in place, as the lower cut coming in from below this picture is different to the one coming in from above. Also the one above has a series of indentations which could be interpreted as the workmen using metal spikes to lever out the stone, while the lower excavation is more flat based. Why did they leave this 'causeway'? It is not flush with the surface, so could not be used as an access to the interior of the enclosure.

We did not find any pottery in this part of the ditch fill, so dating will be problematic. We did find a couple of flint blades and cores, but these are difficult to date and could be residual anyway. It is hoped that we may be able to dig another trench in the New Year and find more artefacts for dating. The initial interpretation is that this may be a Roman marching camp rather than an Iron Age enclosure. Without further excavation that is all we can say at the moment.

Cash & Community?

The Council for British Archaeology (CBA) sent me a letter today. They say that their core funding source has been withdrawn, although they fail to mention where that comes from, assuming that everyone knows this. I can only assume it is from government. They are asking members (professional archaeologists and non) to make a donation on top of the subs already paid. Needless to say archaeologists are on one of the lowest, if not the lowest, wages for those with a degree. Cuts are going to be made to teams in local planning departments relating to heritage, professional archaeologists have fallen from c.7,000 to 4,000 in the last 5 years and 'new blood' coming through the universities has also fallen in numbers. So that source of funding is also going to drop. Archaeology as a profession is dying and some of us have seen it coming for years (I've been in the job since 1990). The changes to local heritage provision, the privatisation of the job (from local government to private 'units') and low, low wages have all contributed to this. One of the main causes is the lack of effort to gain support from communities, but this is a chicken and egg situation i.e. money needs to be put into this effort but we don't have the money. But also it is how to go about it. 
What does and can archaeology do for you? Are we willing to pay for it?

Scratch that ditch

We began to dig the ditch in Trench 2 today and made good progress, although no pot has has come up, but we did find some nice flint and some bone.

Hopefully we can find some pot and have a definitive date for this feature which we can then match with the ditch in Trench 1.

We are currently doing some research on Roman military sites and find that they are only rarely excavated and when they are finds are at a premium, so Trench 1 on our site may provide a rare chance to add to Roman studies in the British Isles. We have been asked to add our report to the Oasis website, where lots of 'grey literature' (site reports) can be accessed. We are also planning to write a more readable account of our season of digging at Nether Compton, so look out for information on that here.