The Big Dig

Friday   14th  June 2013 Day 13- Roman ‘Grand Designs’ Agricultural ploughing can often affect the extent of the archaeology still recoverable on site. This means that features that can define use of space are often lost over time. Therefore whenever features are recovered that can help define use of space and divisions within a… Read more » about Day 13- Roman ‘Grand Designs’

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… Read more » about Day 12- The missing vanity link?

Wednesday 12th June 2013 Day 11- Tools and stone robbers Rain can have both beneficial and detrimental effects during an excavation season. The rain can soften the soil therefore making it easier to trowel back and define the less obvious features. However it can also soften the soil to such an extent that the feature… Read more » about Day 11- Tools and stone robbers

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Day 10- More Intriguing Pottery and environmental sampling The rain overnight has helped to soften the soil and has allowed further definition of features. Another burst of cleaning back was undertaken, in order to fully quantify the number of features available to dig before the excavation season is over. In addition,… Read more » about Day 10- More Intriguing Pottery and environmental sampling

Monday 10th June 2013 Day 9- The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence When the weather takes a turn for the worse and there aren’t a lot of finds coming up, it is vital to remember the purpose of the excavation and how much more interesting features are just waiting to emerge!… Read more » about Day 9- The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence