It was a damp start as predicted with mist and a little drizzle on the first field of the day. This was the field that we were rained-off from last weekend. We're not complaining though as this was our 27th outing this season which was far better than the year before!

With very little being found both ceramic and metallic (one hammered and a small seal matrix) we decided to move on.
We had the choice of two pasture fields that we've never searched, or to test the theory of "soil compaction" on a 8.5 acre stubble field we last surveyed in April 2016 when it was freshly drilled with winter wheat.
​22 hammered coins and a large amount of Medieval pottery were recovered on those two visits last year. 
An odd sight was a hare that was crouched down in front of us no more than 4 feet away! We'd seen two boxing earlier and this was one of them.

We elected to go for the stubble field as we could cover the pasture fields anytime between May and August.
It wasn't long before the first of 9 hammered coins (dating from C12th onward) began to show as well as more pieces of C13th - C14th pottery with their customary green glaze. Lots of lead and a lead seal matrix along with several lead pistol shot were found. A rare find was a lead champagne seal from the famous French champagne house of Roedere. Just as odd was a bottle top from the Derwent Brewery (Russells) in Malton as we were nowhere near that area! Another nice find was a zoomorphic strapend that could be Saxon/Viking or Early Medieval.
Some of the field had been disked and three hammered coins came from this area. Amazingly, a couple of the hammered were found in the solid stubble ground were recovered within 5mm of the field surface showing that 100% coverage wasn't achieved last time around. As it was, we only covered a third of the field this time around.
It just goes to show that if you don't overlap your swing you will miss small metallic items at the outer limits of your swing arc.
To date, 31 hammered coins have been recovered from this field in 3 visits.
This area appears to have been used as a temporary low-key market site with coins covering a wide time span, C12th to C16th as well as the usual casual Georgian losses etc.

We called it a day at 4:30 and called in to see the landowners as we hadn't seen them for a few weeks. 
We caught up with several items on the agenda, hopefully we can report on some of these items in the not too distant future......

​High definition images of the days finds can be seen here.

Back in 2016 we were approached by a highly experienced archaeologist from The British Museum and he asked about the possibility of having a full-blown archaeological dig on one of our sites.
We put this to the landowner and therefore laid down the foundations for a meeting between all parties.
That meeting took place on 17th November 2016 with Rob, myself, the archaeologist and the Field Director from the archaeological survey unit.

The meeting went really well with discussions on where a finds recovery room could be situated, a cleaning/sieving area, toilet facilities, water sources, power and proposed survey-excavation areas to name but a few points.
When asked where they could dig, the landowner quite casually responded, with a wry smile, "You're the experts.... you tell me".

With the mass of evidence recovered and the span of history covered, this was enough to justify a full excavation without the use of geophysics. 
The first excavation will involve just one area of the farm with 3 trenches being cut there over 7 days. There are plans ahead for 4 more annual excavations lasting two weeks apiece.

The dig day had arrived, the equipment was craned into the field and with the JCB now in place, the first cut began, and so it was that our very first personal excavation was taking place. We are so proud and excited at the prospect of what lay ahead.

Three trenches 10 metres by 2 metres were strategically placed over features that had been identified from crop marks that had been recorded earlier.

We went over the spoil heaps that were very kindly spread out for us by the JCB driver and with the blessing of the archaeologists.
The depth of the trenches cut by the JCB averaged 15 inches so was more than any metal detector could hope for regarding coinage and other small artefacts.
Absolutely nothing metallic at all was found from the plough/sub soil levels of all three trenches showing that the coverage from our previous surveys was absolutely meticulous. 
The sides of the trenches were also scanned and again, nothing metallic could be detected.

All the archaeologists on the dig throughout the week (some came and others went) had a look at the recoveries we had made and were gobsmacked at the amount of finds on view.
One of the questions was "how long did it take to compile such a lovely collection of finds?" ......the answer was over the last 20 months.
Another asked if we were married? I replied "no, we just detect together".

The archaeologists then started the excavation, trowelling back the trench floor. At the end of each day we scanned the spoil heaps and trench walls and floor. Oddly enough, two Medieval dress hooks were found in the same trench! One was just below the plough soil (15 inches deep) in a ramp formed at one end of the trench and the other was a metre down in what was a Medieval ditch!

One of the days was a "get the family involved" day and part of that day was to learn about metal-detecting and how it led to the dig actually happening. The families all had a look at the finds and were amazed at how much history was within 5 inches of their feet.

One of the guest archaeologists brought along their partner who was also a detectorist from Spain. She had a Minelab CTX 3030 and had the same results as we achieved. So, no great surprises there as we have already said that it's more to do with whats under your feet rather than getting into all sorts of silly arguments about machines, depth, coins-on-edge, mineralisation etc etc etc etc etc etc...... the list is boringly endless.

This shows that there were no more metallic artefacts at all from the entire contents of three trenches totalling 30 cubic metres or 1060 cubic feet or 30,000 litres of soil. Not one cut-quarter, cut-half or whole hammered was recovered from a field that has produced several cut-quarters, cut-halves and full coins! No buckles, no strapends, nothing .....other than the two dress hooks mentioned earlier. 
It proved to us that nothing much had "sunk" to depths that were out-of-range to any machine. 
Lets hope that there's something left outside the trench areas when we do eventually re-survey this field!

The field isn't being ploughed this year so we'll give it a miss and wait until it is ploughed. It will be interesting though just to see how much is recovered then.

So, on this field the conclusion is that all the small items in the top 4 to 5 inches are recovered, the small finds in the lower section of the plough soil (4 to 8 inches deeper, depending on crops) however being missed.
By small finds we mean up to the maximum size of a Edward III penny or Roman numus/denarius.
Once re-ploughed, the lower 4 to 8 inches may be in reach of the search coils but there's still that middle bit, the one that was 6 inches deep and is still 6 inches deep but the other way up! When will that ever be within coil range? That's exactly how a small amount of finds may always exist and be lurking there somewhere.

As we all know, finds are finite and the prospect of recovering the same quantities as on the first surveys will diminish to a point were it won't be worth travelling several miles/hours any more. All the larger artefacts such as Roman brooches etc will have been recovered for sure, as we've seen on the heavily detected areas we've searched in the past.

Pictures of the dig can be seen here including the largest selfie-stick ever!
​

We set off today with fingers crossed as the forecast for later in the day was heavy rain. On arrival we were greeted with blue sky and no wind, although we knew that would change in the afternoon.
We were just about to set off and the bolt securing the coil to the stem sheared on one of the machines! A new replacement bolt was fitted in seconds and we were back in business.

We decided to carry on from where we left off last week, on the site of our latest discovery, a small Romano-British settlement. We estimate that this may have been quite a small site, perhaps just one roundhouse judging the size of the spread of ceramic and metallic objects.
More Roman coinage began to emerge from the headland and we also decided to cover the area between track 1 and 2 as we'd covered the areas between 2, 3 and 4.
The first coin between the tracks was a Roman grot but the second coin was indeed a pleasant surprise, a penny of Harold I also known as Harold Harefoot. This dates to between 1038 and 1040 AD and was in relatively good condition except for a nick to it just below the bust line.
An Early Medieval lead sword pommel insert was found in the actual tractor track itself.

We then decided to cover the tumulus area in the adjacent field more concisely to see if there was a spread of Roman evidence there that could have come from the roundhouse area.
Oddly, the first coin was a voided long-cross cut-half and unbelievably, the second coin was a voided long-cross penny! No more Roman coinage or other Roman evidence was recovered showing that the habitation area was quite tightly centred on the field next door.

After a bite to eat, we moved to the field above the settlement site and elected to employ the 'Zebra' method to this newly seeded field. The field was half-a-mile long and no evidence of human activity showed. No lead, iron or ceramics were encountered showing that if there were any finds there they would be quite sparse.
We then moved to the next field above the last one which was also newly drilled and proceeded with the 'Zebra' technique in there too. Again, no sign of habitation was found.

We moved westwards to another newly seeded field and came across Medieval green glazed pottery in the corner where we had entered. Lots of broken chalk was evident too as we made our way to the target area at the top of the hill. 
The hill is in fact a very large mound covering several acres and as soon as we got to the summit we found Roman Samian Ware and other Roman pottery. This was indeed a good sign and may prove to be yet another settlement site. Unfortunately, the weather did take a turn for the worse, and we were consequently rained off at 3pm.
​We are hoping to pay a return visit to this field next week in order to verify whether or not there is another settlement here.

In all, we recovered 10 Roman coins, 3 hammered coins, an Early Medieval sword pommel, a Medieval buckle, a Tudor dress fastener, lots of lead, a few buttons, lots of ancient pottery and a shed load of green waste!
​With regards to the pottery, we had a good mix of Roman, a couple of Saxon and many C13th - C14th pottery sherds.

All was not lost as we had planned to have a look at another permission where the potato had been levelled in October last year.
I spoke to the landowners son at the time and asked if they were going to just roll it and drill, or plough it again? He wasn't sure.
We got there to find that it had been re-ploughed, so that means it has now been ploughed twice since we were last on it and one of those ploughing sessions was at a depth of 18 inches!
We cannot wait for it to be drilled later this month as it may prove to be quite an eye-opener as it has produced some fantastic Roman fibulae with pins, coinage, as well as superb examples of Samian Ware.

We used the 13" x 11" coils, GMP mode and both machines using manual GB setting mine to 82 whilst Rob left his at 90.

​High Definition images can be see here.