Thursday 13th June 2013

Day 12- The missing Vanity Link?

Earlier in the excavation season, students Dominque Hopton and Afifa Khan recovered Roman tweezers and a fragmented ear scoop. As explained in an earlier blog, often these toiletries are found in a set of three and in this case the nail manicurist scrapper was not recovered within the same area. Today a nail scraper was indeed recovered but in a completely different area of the site! It may not be exactly from the same Roman toiletry or vanity set but is evidence that at least all three may have been used. The nail scrapper is pictured below.

Roman nail scrapper, courtesy of Bournemouth University.

Beneath the Roman villa, the evidence from one of the features is indicative of it once being used as a well. Further excavation of this possible well today by student Emily Rhodes revealed the skeletal remains of a perinate or neonate. Further analysis of the remains will be needed to determine which category the skeleton fits into. Careful sorting and sieving of the soil around the bigger remains was undertaken to ensure the maximum amount of bones were recovered. The first stage of sorting the skeletal remains is pictured below.

Perinate or Neonate skeletal remains during the careful sorting process. Recovered by student Emily Rhodes. Courtesy of Bournemouth University.

Interpretation is always changing both during and after an archaeological excavation season. For example, many of the features this year were interpreted as house platforms. However for one of these features, the section and context evidence in addition to the finds recovered suggested the feature was instead a midden (an area for domestic waste). This is due to the extent of broken pottery fragments recovered, the sloping sides and that once the feature was cleaned up, it had an oval rather than rectangular shape. These ever changing interpretations is one of the many reasons archaeology remains fascinating for many people!