Well it always happens; we get to the last days of the season and a new feature emerges. This time its a complete lower layer of archaeology below a series of pits at about 800mm below the current trench surface where a dark fill and a consolidated area of tile fragments dissapear beyond the edges of the current excavated area. So we all better hit the gym before next season as there's going to be some hard graft getting down to the lower level whilst still recording any features above. We really shouldn't be surprised on a site that has evidence of 300 years of Romano-British occupation. The pit above has given us some interesting finds with a range of coins from Faustina to possibly Honorius (awaiting expert confirmation), a very nice penannular brooch and 2 sherds of 3rd century, Rhenish ‘snake-thread’ glass (John Shepherd pers comm). Other finds include some very fine colour-coated ware beaker sherds with raised hunting scenes. All in all the end to a brilliant season on this exceptional site with thanks to all our volunteers, students, but especially our dedicated supervisors, Nancy, Andy, Rich and Nat, and not forgetting Mark Stroude for allowing us to dig on his productive farm. Just the open morning to go on the 16th then e can now start the winter-long job of transcribing the records, digitising the drawings, collating the finds and writing a draft site diary/report which should keep us out of mischief till we start to plan next year's dig.
