Chester Farm 2019

We are back again for three weeks at Chester Farm as mentioned here, thanks to a collaboration and financial assistance from the University of Leicester.  

I had a personal email from our archaeologist asking if I was free for these three weeks, so as is usual with me, flattery can get you anywhere!  So I said 'Yes' with the proviso that I could no longer dig (I can't get up off the ground very easily) but would be happy to pot wash, which I love.

So last Monday I was there at 8.45am along with some old friends and many students from the University. and after a briefing and a tour of the site we started work.  The weather was good to us on the first day

Just one of the areas being uncovered

and I had plenty of washing to do of items that are called 'unstratified' as they come from a badger sett.

Then the first 'find' of the week came in - a Roman coin, the best that the archaeologist had seen from this site with the head of Magnentius who ruled from 350-353AD and the coin is dated 351.  We could see all this with the naked eye and very little damage.

In the meantime I had been washing this piece of Roman Samian ware and became quite excited by it - I know I am very sad!

During my work with the Portable Antiquities Scheme (see previous post) I have been looking at 'pot mends' and I suddenly realised what this was - a Roman pot mend and it was confirmed by the archaeologist.  Yippee and so exciting. Samian ware was made in Gaul and therefore would have been an expensive item for Mrs Roman at Chester Farm to own, so when she got a hole in it, it would need repairing and so a lead plug would have been put in.

So the week proceeded with the weather being mainly good, though windy.  However Friday was awful and we all left site early looking like drowned and muddy rats.  There was one bright light

This trench full of Roman pots and these were going to be lifted on Monday (today as I write), because the person who found them was not going to be on site until then.  Goody thinks I, as I will get to wash them!!

I was there yesterday, on a glorious sunny Sunday and had a great deal to wash including medieval pottery finds, that I can now recognise and I took this photo to show how the original

trench was coming on.  The two ladies are working on a Roman road and the nearest working is a dwelling.  The gap between the road and the house is a ditch so that the road didn't get waterlogged.  Clever thinking.

What I am not allowed to show you are the skeletons that are now being unearthed to the left of this photo as this is a Roman cemetery.  They will be left in situ until the end of the dig, so that the groups of school children and others, who are going to visit can see them.  Then they will be lifted, washed (a job for me) and marked (also a job for me and others) before going for examination and research by the experts.  This will determine their gender, age, race etc.

But today the weather has changed and there has been constant rain and I decided not to go in as I am sure that there will be no digging as the wet conditions cause damage to the site and I doubt that the pots will be lifted.  Oh bother!!!!

Still I have been able to write a quick post and sort out my photos and show you these.

They are my patchwork socks using three different sock wools and from a pattern by Winwick Mum.  We had to complete them for the June meeting of sock club and I learnt a number of new techniques in sock knitting so well worth making them.