Week 9, 1- 7 September

Here we are again, at the end of another busy, exciting and productive week. Trainees from all over the UK were given a thorough grounding in the techniques of archaeological excavation, within a deep urban environment, learning the skills of the archaeologist. Trainee numbers bounced back this week, with renewed vigour, which was very encouraging. Enthusiasm for the subject was, as always, running extremely high. Visitor numbers continued the trend of last week, with the end of the summer holidays for schools, only c. 1100 visiting this week, a far cry from the 2200 visitors in week 7. Still, we have had 15205 visitors so far this season, well up on the same time period last year.

Excavation of rampart deposits in Trench 1.

Trench 1

Excavation within this trench continued to focus on carefully peeling apart the individual layers that make-up the Roman rampart on the south-east side of the interval tower SW6. This has been much harder than expected, as the ground, due to its sandy nature, has been prized by burrowing animals in the past. Few finds were recovered from these deposits as they consist of small patches and layers of mostly redeposited sandy natural from the surrounding area.

Flint flake recovered from the rampart deposits in Trench 1. Approximate size 15mm long.

Trench 3

Digging deep at the north-east end of Trench 3!

Carrying on from last week, dumps of material that were laid down to the north-east of the Roman rampart in the 11th or 12th century, continued to be excavated. These deposits are also proving tricky to peel apart. The dumps appear to have been thrown down the slope of the rampart from south-west to north-east in a rapid succession. As a deposit settles, material appears to scatter down the slope of the rampart, the edges of the deposit become blurred with the rapid build-up of further dumps that occurr above it. This creates difficulties in defining the full extent of a context, and also the definition of fresh ones. The dumps are fairly similar in colour, composition and character and therefore, as you can imagine, it is difficult to define one dumping episode from another.

Looking south-west up the rampart.

The top of an L-shaped cut was also exposed this week, truncating the sloping rampart deposits. Could this be an attempt to shore up the rampart with a wooden structure? An addition of a building to the rampart in Roman or Viking times? Or a slot to define a property, or boundary that ran up the slope of the rampart? Further excavation may produce an answer as we investigate this strange feature further. All suggestions however can be posted via the web discussion rather than by postcard! Artefacts recovered from this trench this week included a possible bone measuring spoon of probable medieval date along with a selection of other finds dating from the Roman and medieval periods.

Bone object, possibly a measuring spoon, bowl diameter c.18mm across.	Worked jet fragment, 31mm long.	Glass melon bead, 16mm across.

Trench 4

Putting trainees through their paces in Trench 4!

New trainees were hard at it removing more backfill material to reveal the medieval drain within the previously excavated trench 2 (2001) this week. Two-thirds of this has now been exposed, with many finds being recovered from the backfills. In 2001 some of the modern deposits, such as the backfill of the 1940's air-raid shelter, were removed by machine rather than being carefully hand excavated and sieved. It is likely that the finds originate from deposits which were machine cleared or rapidly excavated with mattocks and shovels. It is impossible on any archaeological excavation to get 100% finds recovery, so this exercise is a good case in point. The percentage of recovery of artefacts from a deposit very much depends on the method of excavation used.

Trench 5

Trench 5 looking north.

An inticate sequence of interleaved paths, dating to the late 19th and early 20th century have been investigated this week. For many visiting members of the public, these deposits are what brings archaeology to life, as they can imagine men and women in Victorian garb parading along this path within the Garden of Antiquities. Further deposits within the air-raid shelter demolition cut have also been tackled this week, another feature on the site that stirs peoples memories and brings history to life for members of the public. Several copper alloy objects, perhaps part of a Roman vanity set, were recovered from this trench this week, along with a selection of other finds from Roman to modern times.

The gravel path under excavation in Trench 5.

Copper alloy objects, possibly part of a Roman vanity set, recovered from Trench 5. The ring is 20mm in diameter, the other object is 47mm in length and 12mm wide.