Week 6, 11–17 August

Visitors watch the finds work takingplace on site.

What a week for visitors! This has been an exciting time on the training excavation, the busiest ever for visitors. We smashed all existing records for visitor numbers to the St. Leonard's Hospital excavations, pulling in 2,123 visitors this week. Over 10,000 people have now visited the excavations since the start of July and seen the exciting world of deep urban archaeological excavations. To add to the visitor experience, staff and trainees have been showing the public the processes behind finds work - cleaning, cataloguing and recording the finds as well as the detailed finer points of environmental processing - searching for tiny animals bones, charred seeds, nuts and grains and other important ecofacts.

Placement Katrina demonstrates finds washing to visitors.

The south-east wall of interval tower SW6 in Trench 1, with the medieval robber cut and its fills visible in the foreground.

Trench 1

More of the Roman interval tower wall was exposed, showing that the wall had been even more thoroughly robbed than originally thought, down to foundation level. Many mortar fragents were found at this level, no doubt resulting from the demolition of the wall. Artefacts recovered from the medieval robber trench backfill deposits included fragments of early Roman Gallo-Belgic ware, particularly that known as Terra Nigra, as well as some Roman glass.

Trench 3

A view of Trench 3 looking north-east, down the slope of the fortress rampart.	Excavating in Trench 3, with a stepladder being used in the medieval foundation pit for access!

The excavation of the medieval foundation pit had now reached a depth of about 1.5m with no signs of the base of the cut appearing. Clearly the medieval builders had constructed suitable foundations for the massive infirmary building. The green dumped deposits being excavated on the north-east side of the trench were found to contain much domestic waste as well as charcoal, burnt clay and metal-working debris. These deposits were mixed with material thought to have been taken from the Roman fortress rampart. This probably shows how the even surface for the construction of the medieval infirmary was formed, by removing the top of the rampart and dumping it on the lower slope of the rampart along with any other marterial that was at hand. The large quantities of Roman finds in these deposits is therefore not so surprising. Roman artefacts recovered this week including fragments of window and vessel glass, several coins and more painted plaster.

Trench 4

After the removal of the modern overburden, the positions of Time Team's trench excavated in 1999, and the edges of Trench 2 which we excavated in 2001, were identified. This exercise also revealed that some archaeology survives between these two trenches as well as in the area to the north-west of the Time Team investigation, which bodes well for the future.

Trench 5

Excavating the 1950s trench in Trench 5, with the World War Two air-raid shelter cut behind.

During this week we have been concentrating on unravelling the relationship between the deposits infilling the World War Two air-raid shelter and a 20th century excavation trench. Careful excavation revealed that the excavation trench was in fact later than the air-raid shelter demolition deposits and therefore probably dates these excavations to the 1950s. During this painstaking excavation a further possible excavation slot that pre-dated the air-raid shelter was also revealed. This may equate with Miller's investigation of the Multangular Tower in the 1920s. The sections revealed by the re-excavation of the 1950's trench suggest that a complex sequence of archaeological deposits survives in this area - a tantalising glimpse into what will be dug over the following weeks. Artefacts recovered this week included medieval glazed floor tiles and the jug handle from a medieval flagon.

Trainees and staff relax at the end of another successful week!