After all the excitement experienced at Leeds University last Friday in the Scanning Electron Microscope lab it was back to battling with the green waste on the hoard field at JHF1.
You may have seen in Mondays post the amount we cleared in 6 hours, it was 2.6 kilo's !! We've already spent 44 hours each on this field since it was re-seeded a few weeks ago. This is on top of all the visits to this field we did last year. You can imagine how much green waste we've shifted and lifted just from this field alone.

Well at least the weather was good, overcast and no wind at all which made it quite warm at 17C.
Large coils fitted, standard GMP, GB manual on one, tracking on the other.
The first good find after 20 minutes was a superb denarius of Titus 79 AD not far from the hoard spot which had Vespasian coinage amongst it.
Four more Roman coins, a second century headstud fibula, three hammered, two mid-fourteenth century buckles, a William III sixpence in the form of a love token, a 1700's thimble and four lead pot-mends were recovered which was a surprising number of mends in one session.

As you can see, perseverance can pay off (and extreme patience) but we apply that attitude to all aspects of metal-detecting, as you know!

We called in at the farmhouse as we've not seen them for a couple of weeks to catch up. The excavation that we've instigated appears to be gaining momentum as there's a meeting arranged for mid November between the landowner and the archaeological group. The amount of evidence from our surveys at this permission alone has prompted the group to go straight to excavation. The group are interested in gaining access to some of our other permissions too. Exciting times ahead.

Meanwhile, we think we'll give our ears a rest and survey one of our permissions that hasn't any green waste (yet) next weekend, if the weather is okay. This permission (MC) is where the gold "Norfolk Wolf" stater came from when we there last in September.

​High definition images can be seen here.

The day started with a damp train journey to Leeds city centre and a visit to the renowned Leeds Electron Microscopy and Spectroscopy Centre (LEMAS) situated on the campus of Leeds University. It was here that hopefully there may be some answers to the origin and makeup of the gold nugget we recovered in Cumbria last year.
I was advised to go by train as the parking at the university is apparently horrendous with the £0.6 Billion refurbishment going on! Surprisingly it was pretty dry in Leeds so the one mile walk to the Engineering section of the campus wasn't too bad.

Deep in the bowels of the Engineering Faculty run by School of Chemical and Process Engineering and the School of Earth and Environment is LEMAS. It is situated in the basement for a particular reason, minimal vibration.
As there was a gold theme for today I brought along, with the gold nugget; a gold ring, a gold stater and a gold quarter noble to show the scientists other items recovered that were crafted in gold just for curiosity on their part.

I was warmly greeted by Dr Richard Walshaw who very kindly agreed to analyse the nugget using a brand new state-of-the-art Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) that was currently being commissioned. What a piece of kit it was too! The SEM is a Tescan Vega3 XM and has a magnification of up to 1,000,000x!
​There were several rooms, each with some impressive technology and large monitors, attended by students under the wings of the doctors and professor there.

Normally, samples are ground down to a perfectly flat surface and mounted in a stable solid such as resin. Gold is sprayed onto the surface of the sample to create a conductive current when bombarded with electrons.
With the gold nugget being so valuable this was not possible so it was attached to its analysing plinth with adhesive copper tape to create a path to earth.

The nugget was mounted onto the SEM table inside the machine which was fully controlled via a desktop PC connected to three monitors. The image resolution is 8K for the SEM and 4K for the x-ray detector. What is impressive is the depth-of-field (DoF) resolution of the images.
The heavy steel door was closed and the vacuum was induced, the table and specimen were still clearly visible via a CCTV camera inside the chamber.
Once in a state of vacuum the electron beam was energised and the Secondary Electrons (SE) mode was selected and the electrons accelerated to scan speed. This creates a topographical image such as you see on usual SEM images in magazines and TV. The classic one is the ant carrying a microchip.
Several scans at varying speeds and settings were taken with the SEM image on monitor one, the internal chamber image on monitor two and the analytics on monitor three.
If you think the above is brain scattering it was even worse/better being there watching all the bits move inside the chamber, the noises of the vacuum in action, the real-time graphs showing the chemical elements of everything on the nugget and the brilliant narration from Dr Walshaw all at the same time.
​Just as I thought I was getting to grips with the initial psychological storm I was hit with another; "I'm now going to analyse it using Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD). With that came a brief explanation on how the electrons are scattered after hitting the targeted sample surface and then analysed by a separate x-ray detector within the chamber.
With the nugget being so uneven, an accurate analysis result may be hard to achieve so would be quantitative. It will however show the makeup of all the elements on the nugget including the soil forced into the crevices of the gold.
The brighter the area on the image the higher up the atomic scale the sample with gold being the brightest, The dark areas are the non-conductive elements such as the quartz and silica (soil and clay).
The results will be emailed in the next week or so showing the full breakdown of the elements present. From what I could see there was gold (obviously), traces of silver, iron, carbon, Oxygen, zinc and copper to name a few. A big surprise was that sea-salt was also present!

It was now three hours since entering the lab and Dr Walshaw had an appointment to keep at 1pm. He was interested in the colour difference in the stater and the quarter noble and asked if I wouldn't mind coming back at 2pm so he could check out the coins. I didn't need asking twice!
On Dr [Name Withheld] return it was back to the preparation room for the coins to be mounted on double-sided adhesive carbon pads. Again, this for the electrons to find a path to earth.
The chamber was vented after powering down the electrons and the nugget swapped places with the coins. 
First up was the stater and one of the pellets selected for analysis as there may be a fairly flat area for the SEM to target. The SEM zoomed into the pellet and carried on zooming in until minute scratches on the surface of the pellet could be seen. I thought "wow" until the SEM zoomed into the scratch which looked like the Grand Canyon!
Zooming out again a flat area was identified and several parts of the area were targeted for the electrons to strike.
As the fire button was hit a graph appeared on the third screen showing the breakdown of the elements present. Mostly gold with a larger amount of silver and small amounts of copper and other trace elements.
Again, the full results will follow soon.

The gold hammered quarter noble of Edward III was next in the firing line literally. The surprise here was that the coin came back as pure gold with virtually no silver content at all!

It was now 4:20pm and the machine was vented and shut down for the day and what a lovely long day it was too starting at 10am!
The lab are next going to test some 3D software with the new SEM and I was asked if I could come back with the stater at some point as it would make a good specimen to try out. As though I'd say no! 

​All the images of the day can be seen here.

Acknowledgements to Dr Richard Walshaw and Dr Robert Chapman of Leeds University's LEMAS Centre.

Today's survey saw the team re-visiting our permission JHF1 or as one person called it "Just Having Fun!" which I thought was quite amusing and fitting. The field is the one where lots of denarii have been retrieved including 15 from a hoard.

The plan for the day was to try and cover as much of this field as we could on this, the second visit since re-ploughing. The field is about 14.5 acres in size with just under 5 acres remaining which we could possibly cover in the day depending on the amount of stops we encounter.

We knew that this was going to be hard day as we'd already surveyed this field after the last plough session with not many finds per acre and a substantial amount of the dreaded green waste present! The upside is that the finds are pretty good when they do show, including the denarii hoard.
If it wasn't for the the quality of the finds I think that most people would avoid the field altogether unless it was on their doorstep.

Anyway, on to the survey itself, we started from where we left off after our two hour session last week that was stopped by the rain. Quite an expensive trip time-wise with over four hours travel time for a two hour stint.
It was one hour forty-five minutes before the first find was recovered and that was a Roman grot!
However, and after a lot of moaning about the green waste and doubt about any good finds appearing a sestertius came up with a discernible portrait showing. Within five feet of that a beautiful denarius of Plautilla (202 AD) appeared which was a lovely sight after all the doubt.

A change in direction along a different headland saw a hammered coin of Edward II, London Mint being recovered. Lunch beckoned so we headed for the support vehicle for a drink and something to eat.
During lunch a change in strategy was discussed but we decided to compromise and carried on where we were for two more passes. A nice Roman artefact was recovered but nothing else but green waste.
The second part of the compromise was Rob going with his gut instinct on another part of the field and me going with mine. Also there was a change in coils for Rob to the 9" standard unit whilst I stuck with the 13" x 11" coil.
The reason for the coil change was simply a power outage on Robs coil.

Robs first find on the "new" patch was a denarius of Antoninus Pius with two more dupondii and a tiny Edward Ist farthing coming up from an amazing four inches in depth!
Meanwhile, on my patch, a jetton and a hammered penny of Edward III came to light.

All in all, a good day despite the negative aspect of the dreaded green waste with consecutive coins Edwards of I, II & III making a show on the same day as well as six Roman coins. One Medieval coin in one day on this field would be a "bonus" for us but five Medieval coins is beyond belief.
Some lovely pieces of Roman pottery were also recovered with some nice base sherds including the base of a goblet and a couple of Medieval jug handles too.

Standard  Déus GMP settings, one on manual the other on tracking.
As per usual, all finds were within the first five inches of the surface, many being shallower!

High definition images of the days recoveries can be seen here.

Tip #one is to pronounce the name of the machine you're using correctly.. ie "Day-us" and not "Juice" or "Duce". Once you get past this step the rest should be pretty easy.

Secondly ensure ALL your batteries are fully charged.

Thirdly, make sure the the coil covers are clear of contamination such as grit, dust and other debris.

Fourthly, make sure your machines don't clash re frequencies if they are both Déus'.

Fifth, make sure the coil is close to the ground and the sweep is low and smooth.

Sixth, if the signal sounds good both ways DIG IT!
It may be a brilliant iron artefact.

Seventh, any other signal that may sound good.... dig that too!

Eighth, use a harness no matter what coil you use as this WILL ensure a pleasant trip out.

Ninth, listen to those that have consistently good results and don't be afraid to ask how those results are achieved.

Tenth, always believe that you can achieve your dreams...... just make sure that you cover all aspects of your project/dream otherwise you WILL fall short of your expectations.

Eleventh, look at the results of others, if you still think that you fall short of those results ask yourself the question WHY!!

Twelfth, give us a call......

We took the opportunity to visit a permission we hadn't had chance to survey for quite a while. The last visit to FF was April this year and before that it was March 2015.

The weather was quite good and it was a pleasant change to visit Cumbria in place of Lincolnshire or Yorkshire.
The field had been drilled with winter barley and the the shoots were about 4 inches tall on average.
This was the field where the gold nugget was recovered in March 2015 and a handful of Roman coins and a denarius, some from the first century.

The first signal was a sestertius and the next was another sestertius. There wasn't many non-ferrous signals and apart from further sestertius' and grots a lovely example of an Edward III groat dating to 1351 AD appeared from 3 inches below the surface.
Another hammered coin was identified as an Edward IV Durham penny. In all, eight Roman coins and two Medieval coins made up the coinage recovered with no coins from any other time period.
An item of note was a large ferrous object in the form of a Roman hammer.
As we think this was a temporary Roman campsite that may have been used on several occasions, this hammer may have been used to secure the tent pegs used then. The face of the hammer is set at a peculiar angle.
​
All of a sudden there was a huge roar and a RAF Tornado passed overhead at a height of about 250ft. The sheep in the field next door just carried on eating as though nothing had happened!

Our survey came to a sudden halt when a tractor turned up with the crop spraying equipment attached and began its spraying operations.
It's probably the shortest survey we've ever done but at least we had something to show for it and were home before tea time.

HD images of the days recoveries can be see here.

Today was going to be a day of great anticipation with another visit to our permission known as JHF1. With the weather looking favourable, the outlook was good. A hunting barn owl was a lovely site at 07:01. 
The plan for today was to complete the "Medieval" field and then make a start on the "Denarii Hoard Field", both of which are now seeded with winter wheat.

The Medieval field was seeded in a way that made it a challenge to cover it efficiently. The lines curved and twisted in all directions but we did manage to tame it and were sufficiently satisfied that we'd done it justice.
A cut-half and a half-penny along with several C14th buckles, strapends, belt mounts, a lovely beehive thimble and three Roman grots were recovered along with Medieval and Roman pottery.
The beehive thimble (first signal of the day) goes perfectly with the Medieval darning needle recovered last week.
The field was typical for a settlement area with hundreds of ferrous signals and copious amounts of lead fragments.

Lunchtime beckoned so we had a bite to eat before moving on to the denarii hoard field. We knew that we'd only part-cover this field today using our calculations. 

We had marked the area where part of the hoard was found with a broom using reference data from the GPS co-ordinates from last December!
I know this may appear to be "high-tec" to some but we do like a reference point. The Lady of the Manor arrived on-site with their two dogs to see how we were getting on. She said that she looked forward to us calling in after the survey.
Apart from lots of green waste, Roman pottery and the first Roman coin (a large sestertius) made an appearance. Oddly enough, a couple of fragments of Medieval pottery and a small hammered coin of Edward Ist also came up. 
As we came up against the "broom marker" the first denarius of the day was discovered. This was a denarius of Tiberius (Tribute penny 36 - 37 AD) and was in superb condition.
Two Roman brooches (a trumpet type and a tiny dolphin type), more large bronze coin denominations and small coins as well as a couple of Roman artefacts were found. Two pieces of raw yellow ochre were retrieved from the field surface. This was used as pigment for paint and colouring the enamel on Roman fibulae.
Another denarius was that of of Clodius Albinus (196 AD) but was entirely encrusted with hard-packed clay and copper leeching.
The culmination of events was the recovery of a triple-stacked stash of denarii that are certainly part of the December hoard.
We're hopefully seeing our local FLO this week to record the new additions to the original hoard. Another 6 denarii over the last seven days will bring the total to 15 as the current total.

As per usual we called in at the farmhouse to show the landowners the four cases of finds we'd recovered. Two cases held the Medieval finds and the other two held the Roman recoveries.
I asked if the gate would be left unlocked next week? (There are several locked gates on this Estate!!). With that, we were given a master key that unlocks all the gates on the Estate.

Everyone was so excited at the prospect of further finds that may be found as well as the upcoming professional archaeological survey that we've arranged to take place at some point in the not too distant future.
The archaeologists have arranged a meeting with the landowners to discuss what may happen and when.

We're hoping that, along with this and our British Museum presentation in Liverpool last week, we'll be able to improve the perception of metal-detectorists to the archaeological world and the general public.

Next week will be interesting as we'll survey the remainder of the field where the denarii hoard is situated.
Our estimates show that it will take at least 1.77 days to complete this field in its entirety! I think that next Sunday will be a full day with perhaps a day remaining to survey depending on how many stops we have!

A slight change to the instrumentation with one machine fitted with the standard 9" coil and the other with the 13" x 11" coil. GMP standard with tracking on one and manual on the other Déus.

For the full HD images of all the days finds please look here.


 

What a beautiful morning to engage one of our newest permissions - JHF1.

The plan was to survey one of the fields that has just been drilled with winter wheat. The field chosen looks to be a Medieval settlement.

The soil conditions varied from light and fluffy to solid lumps of clay.
Apart from 45 pieces of C14th pottery, lots of Medieval artefacts and coinage were recovered. The coins were 9 hammered units dating from King Stephen (c.1135 AD) to Queen Elizabeth Ist (1572 AD) with buckles, needles, a dagger pommel insert, a lead seal and token and three Roman coins.
Three ferrous artefacts included a forged point, a loop shaped object and a 

We fancied a change of scenery so decided to have a quick look at the small river that runs through the land. Rob donned the chest waders and I stuck to wellies armed with both Déus machines, pro-pointers and sifts.
5 pieces of Medieval pottery were stuck in the river bottom. Unfortunately the machines can't operate 4 inches below the water surface so we called it a day. We'll return another day with underwater machines.

With about 30 minutes of daylight left we elected to have a quick look at the "hoard field". This is also seeded with winter wheat and as flat as a pancake. By the time we got there only 10 minutes of light remained!
The first signal was a large Iron Age/Roman terret ring quickly followed by a sestertius, an As, a Roman grot and two early denarii. These denarii were directly over the hoard site and had the same copper leeching marks upon them. One is identified as that of Vespasian and dated 70 AD. The other denarius may be of Domitian?
With the light fading we wrapped up and drove to the farmhouse to report on the day.

A great day indeed with 45 pieces of Medieval pottery, 9 Medieval hammered coins, 8 Roman coins, a superb early Roman terret ring and several other artefacts. Amazing that we recovered five cut-quarters in one day, two of them from the King Stephen era! 

We were warmly welcomed by the landowners and settled in the kitchen to reflect on what we'd discovered.
Future plans for the farm were discussed along with other projects that we will be involved with. Some of these plans will be published in due course and includes a full professional archaeological survey at the farm.

High definition images of all the finds can be seen here.