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. 

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.