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Groundwell Ridge Dig Diary - day 5

Sunday 13th June – Day 5

I was on my way up to trench 7 (over a possible road) when I was warned off by an EH guy. “I’d wait a couple of days, Chris”.

So nothing like trench 6 then with archaeology appearing after a few minutes. Still if it ain’t there, you can’t find it. There is optimism about the trench but the main aim is to interpret the building in the Southern part of the site.

It is sadly the last day for the first batch of volunteers. Another lot start next Wednesday. A lot of the finds have been made by these volunteers, which must really be the icing on the cake for them. One of the female volunteers (no previous experience) found, a single hobnail (this was by trowel alone), a large lumpy nail with the head turned over (again just by excavating) and today, quite late in the day, started to find tiny blue glass beads!!!. She was chuffed.

I’ll get the info on this latest find tomorrow. Another bit of good news is that we’ve got the “non-roman” drain just where the geophys said it would be.

Apse and floor
Starting to be revealed

Apse and floor

Apse
after initial cleaning

Apse

pipe
Length of lead piping

Length of lead piping

Official EH update for Week 1 Day 5

Being a Sunday we didn’t have the JCB, despite this we have made major progress in Trench 6 cleaning back over the western third and revealing what may be additional surfaces or walls. On the eastern side of the trench we have finally confirmed that we have the 1997 Trial Trench and in emptying it have exposed at least fours courses of Roman masonry. In the over cleaned part of the trench it looks fairly certain that we have got Roman surfaces, possible plaster, more probably mortar and likely to be floors.
In Trench 7 we have spent much of the day cleaning-up for our first set-piece photographs. However we have started a trench down the western side of the area north of the possible road to establish if the soil deposits are going directly down on to Coral Ragstone bed rock.

Finds Bulletin 1
Despite being so early in the excavation quite a number of finds have been produced this week.
Finds from Trench 6 have included a number of fragments of box flue tile. These square tubular tiles formed part of the heating system of Roman Buildings. After hot air had heated the raised floors of the more luxurious Roman rooms it was funnelled up through box flue tiles set in the walls so that both floor and walls were warmed.
Other finds include several types of pottery; locally made Wiltshire wares, colour-coated pottery and the higher quality Samian ware imported from Gaul.
A number of Roman hand-made nails have also been found. Many would have been used to hold roof tiles in place, and stone tiles with nail holes have been found on site this week. In addition, one smaller hobnail was found from the sole of a Roman shoe
 

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