Week 10 (16 - 22 August)

At least the rain wasn't quite so tropical this week! The site was closed to the public again for one day, but visitor numbers were over 1,300 nevertheless, bringing the total to over 15,000. The British trainees were supported by a strong American contingent, mostly here for their second week.

Excavation of the rampart deposits in Trench 3 continued. However, there are signs that we are nearing the base of the rampart; there is a fine cobble surface appearing, and the deposits towards the rear of the rampart appear to be filling a ditch running parallel to the fortress wall. Perhaps these features will prove to be a surface and a roadside ditch which pre-date the rampart.

The cobble surface in Trench 3	The rampart under excavation in Trench 3. Note the possible ditch behind the trainees in the foreground

At the northern end of Trench 4, a large cut filled with mortar was found. This could be the demolished internal wall in the medieval hospital, which was found in Trench 1 in 2001.

In Trench 5 the excavation of the painted wall plaster continued. This is now a very thick layer overall, and it is increasingly difficult to see this as gradual collapse of plaster within the Multangular Tower.

Gabriel Gibson and Alex Schwartz standing in the re-excavated 1920s trench, with the wall and foundations of the Multangular Tower behind

In Trench 6, modern deposits were removed from the eastern area. However the main effort was dedicated to the re-excavation of the 1920s trench in the western area, where we hoped to re-locate timber piles beneath the wall of the Multangular Tower; extraction of any piles could produce tree-ring dates that might date the construction of the Tower to within a year. Trainees Gabriel Gibson and Alex Schwartz deserve special praise for their tremendous efforts in removing the fill of the 1920s trench, which had to be shored to make the excavation safe, and had to be pumped out regularly as the trench filled with ground water - the wet extreme of urban archaeology. They were finally rewarded by the sight of substantial timber piles still in place beneath the Tower wall. Now all we have to do is dig even deeper to extract the timbers!

A flat bone counter from Trench 3 (diameter 18mm)