It promised to be a damp day but we thought we'd risk it seeing that we'd already missed 7 surveys this season due to bad weather. The problem is that the land is so saturated that even if it'd been dry for a few days, there's still a huge amount of water contained in the land.
The landowner at our latest permission, JHF1, estimates that it may take a couple of months for the drains to revert to their normal levels.

Talking of latest permissions, we arrived at JHF1 just as daylight was breaking. We started on the field we were on last week in order to finish it off before moving on to other fields that we hadn't surveyed, as of yet.

Using our new 'Field Speed Formula' it was estimated that we'd finish the field by lunchtime .....and it was absolutely spot on!
I may post a separate article featuring this formula at a later date as it's a great way, and a fun way of accurately estimating how long it will take you to search any permission or field you have.

Anyway, back to today, we started off from where we left off last Saturday.
It wasn't long before the first pieces of C14th pottery were being retrieved from the field surface. Medieval artefacts and coinage soon followed!

In all, we recovered 7 Medieval coins, one of them being a superb example of a 'Stephen' Tealby penny. This was 45mm below the surface and one of the cut-halves was actually on the surface! 
A fragment of a large Saxon brooch and a fantastic specimen of a Saxon zoomorphic brooch were also recovered. The zoomorphic brooch was at an eye-watering 5mm in depth!
A rare example of an Iron Age belt fitting with a "Celtic double-eyed" design was also recovered and is in superb condition complete with its loop.
More strapends came to light along with another silver gilded buckle too.

93 pieces of Medieval pottery, including 9 nice large fragments of jug handles, which were a pleasure to see, weighing in at 1.668kg were collected as well.

We discovered that the nighthawks had been in this particular part of the field as their pathetic attempts to dig were apparent. There were about 15 holes that hadn't been filled in.
It'll be funny when they return as there will be absolutely NOTHING left for them to thieve.

For the techno-minded, we used the large Déus coils, standard GMP mode with auto-tracking.
Using our 'Field Speed Formula' it estimates that it would take 339,258 large (13" x 11") coils to cover the field, or using the 9" coil the field it would accomodate 598,928 coils! Yes, nearly six hundred thousand coils! So those that think a field is "battered" may be interested in reading our "Estimating the Time to Search a Field" article that will follow soon.

​Images of the days finds can be seen here:



​

After a week "off" we returned to our latest permission, JHF1, with a vengeance! This visit was to be a recce on two new fields of winter wheat.
Both these fields have been targeted by "nighthawkers" and the landowners are very keen for us to recover all artefacts, leaving the area "barren" and therefore possibly discourage any further nighthawking.

The start however wasn't as smooth as expected due to the ground conditions being so wet and "claggy" and, additionally, the field was heavily contaminated with green waste.
The first coin recovered was a silver hammered coin of Edward I in very good condition. The next artefact was a beautiful Saxon zoomorphic strapend and 11 fragments of Medieval pottery came to light which appeared to be of high status.
Well the green waste got the better of us and we decided to move to the next planned field.

And what a good move it was too! 
Within minutes of starting the new survey sherds of C13th pottery started to emerge. Oddly enough, the next find was a Roman nummus! It soon became apparent though that Medieval pottery was going to be the order of the day, apart from the staggering amount of Medieval buckles recovered!
The best result was that the field didn't appear to have any green waste upon it!!!

A cut-half Tealby penny and another four hammered coins were recovered
along with more Roman coins and even more Medieval pottery surfaced.
In total, 120 pieces of pottery weighing in at 3,974g (nearly 9 pounds in old money) of which included Roman, Saxon and Medieval material.
In all, 12 Medieval buckles/strapends, a Saxon strapend, a denarius of Antoninus Pius, 5 Roman bronzes, 6 hammered coins (one being a Tealby), Medieval lead (fishing?) weights, Medieval mounts, A C14th dress hook and devil's toenail fossil were recovered.

With the light fading we called it a wrap and headed for the landowners house. An earlier text from the landowner's daughter revealed that she was home from London and was very enthusiastic to see us again and excited to see what we'd recovered. After all, she does hold a degree in archaeology!

We were greeted by the whole family with the news of an impending wedding, and the lucky fiancé was there too! You can imagine the mixed conversations between eight people trying to discuss pottery, coin and artefact details, with historical context, and the wedding too!
We acquired a superb map, annotated with all the field names. This would make it a lot easier when speaking to the landowner when asking about certain fields marked for survey and accurately identifying fields included in the reports of previous surveys. 
Everyone was amazed (including us!) at the amount of pottery we'd recovered as well as some lovely artefacts and coins. The best part for us is that the nighthawkers that operate on those fields are going to go away empty handed.

For those of a technical disposition, we used the Déus 13" coils and the familiar standard GMP mode and "Tracking".
Again, most finds were recovered within the first three inches of the field surface with some finds actually on the surface itself.
Saying that, we did find a signal that was two feet down and we're going back to check it out at the next visit.

For access to the images of all the recovered finds please click here.

The forecast was for a damp start to the day and a damp start it was!
We were back at permission JHF1 and decided to do a recce on the land that we'd never even seen yet. This took us an hour to drive around.

We returned to the initial field we were going to start the survey which was drilled with winter wheat. Lots of clay pipes but not many signals at all. In fact, the first half decent signal was a hammered coin of Edward Ist.
Medieval pottery and a few knapped flint pieces were recovered.

It was interesting to note that a brand new hedge had been planted which followed the line of a very ancient road that was in existence before the Roman invasion.

A break for early lunch and it was onto our next planned area which was the hoard field. We had a newly acquired C Scope 4PI but there was too much iron in the survey area rendering it useless! We carried on with the rest of the field from where we left off last time.
The machine results; Déus 1 -  Pulse Induction 0

Part way through the survey we met up with the landowners and their two friendly dogs. They asked about what we'd uncovered and were amazed at the pottery, flint and artefacts on view. We had a great chat about all things related as well as a mutual interest in aviation! The landowner had acquired his Private Pilot's Licence (PPL) at the tender age of fourteen!
They then left us to continue with the survey.

At the end of the day we'd recovered an array of artefacts including; a cracking Romano-British chatelaine fibula, a RB trumpet fibula, a piece of early Roman gold, a sestertius in good condition, a lovely dumbbell type Celtic toggle fastener, a Roman belt slider, an early buckle (may be Roman) a lovely example of a Medieval skillet leg, lots of RB pottery (including Samian Ware), Medieval pottery and some great flint tools too!

We used the small coils set on on the standard GMP settings and most finds came from within the first THREE inches of the field surface.

Images of the days recoveries can be seen here.
​

 Well, here we are, 2016! ...and a return to the permission, JHF1.
After last week's recovery of a small hoard of Roman denarii we were wondering what our next outing would reveal. Indeed, we were wondering what surprises 2016 might have in store for us.

We now have a Pulse Induction machine on order that should be with us later this week. We will pass over the hoard site with the new machine just to see if there is anything at a greater depth. Should be interesting!

The day started off with a light drizzle which stopped after about twenty minutes. We jumped out of the support vehicle and donned our waterproofs and gear. We started off in the winter wheat field where we'd recovered the small denarii hoard last week, but at the opposite side of the field. We worked our way towards the "hoard" spot

The first find was that of a bronze horse's leg of which we aren't sure of its date yet. The next find was that of a Republican denarius and then a Roman bronze. Another denarius was recovered from the field surface about 50 meters from the Republican denarius.
After 3 hours we had lunch and returned to the winter wheat field.
It started drizzling again to we moved to a pasture field were four Roman bronze coins were recovered.

In all, four denarii and nine Roman grots were recovered along with a few unknown artefacts, a Medieval skillet leg and a Georgian strong box handle and a few Georgian coins.

We stripped down and went for a recce to another two fields we might have a look at. Both have just been drilled. Hopefully we may get permission to survey these.

The machines by the way were fitted with the 13" coils and the standard GMP mode with "Tracking". The field has a "Green Waste" scattering too!

Meanwhile, Sam Moorhead is looking after our recorded hoard entry and will update me when all the blanks are filled in.

​Detailed pictures of the days recoveries can be seen here.