Todays dig was going to target an area that we think may hold a Roman shrine.
This assumption is due to fact that mainly Roman bronze coinage and pottery sherds from small urns have been recovered here.

We got to the field and it was underwater in parts and very, very soggy!
This is the first time at this farm since 2015 that we have not been able to carry out a survey due to wet conditions.
Thankfully, we had a sort of backup plan, and that was to survey the field next door to it.

This field is pasture and only about 3.5 acres in size so should be covered quite easily in the time we had for the day,
Details had come to light recently that this field had been excavated by an amateur team in the 1950's and they had found remains that may have been an altar and grave headstones with several Roman coins there.

Within the first few minutes the first Roman coin emerged, quickly followed by more. In all, 42 Roman coins were recovered, mainly dating to the C4th but covering the following Reece periods; 9, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 & 19.
​The date range is AD 180 to AD 364.
A majority of the coins are in excellent condition and some look like they were uncirculated. 
No other Roman artefacts were recovered which mirrors our other shrine site as only coinage (and nice sherds of small Roman vessels) were found there too.

You can view the images of the finds from this dig here.

As mentioned in a previous post, our new 2023/2024 season has started off pretty slowly with the inclement weather and team availability.
2023 on the whole was quite a good year for Anglo-Saxon finds especially coinage.

In December last year we visited a site that has a small Roman villa with lots of tesserae recovered (91 pieces @ 1.4kg) and a small amount of Roman coinage and fibula fragments. The images can be seen here.

January 7th saw us in a field that has produced mainly Medieval artefacts with 1.4kg of C13th - C14th pottery as well as buckle fragments and four hammered coins.
Over 50 musket balls were recovered of various sizes.
Also, several pieces of worked flint were taken from the surface showing that the area has been used for over three thousand years.
​The images for these finds can be seen here. 

​We are hoping to look at another field on the farm which is quite large but holds what we think is a Roman shrine.
Recent information shows that an area close to here has produced Roman alter stones and coinage during an archaeological dig.

Fingers crossed that we will have a decent report for our next post!