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!

Well, our season may have got off to a slow start due to the extremely wet weather but the finds have far than made up for it!

8th October saw us visit a new permission that is predominantly Anglo-Saxon.
Other finds include Roman, Medieval and Post medieval items.
The Anglo-Saxon (AS) coinage included a sceat of Eadberht dating AD 738 with two styca's, both of Aethelred II dating to AD 810. Three AS pin heads were also recovered.
One intriguing find was the foot of a Roman brooch showing a modification to the catch plate.
Pictures of the finds can be seen here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjAY6MD 

Ironically, our next site visit was to another field that has produced quite a few AS finds too.
This included sceatta's dating from AD 588 to AD 810.
The Wodan sceat is in fantastic condition.
One find in particular is very interesting, it looks to be an AS girdle hanger dating anywhere between the C5th and C7th century.
A Roman brooch and a couple of Roman grots came up too.
For the Neolithic fans out there, a lovely flint blade was recovered that is still incredibly sharp!
Please check these finds out here: flic.kr/s/aHBqjAZG4t

Meanwhile, we managed to return to a favourite permission on Sunday 12th November where we've found all sorts of artefacts covering all the periods from Neolithic to Post Medieval.
The field was quite claggy in parts resulting in heavy boots and spades.

This particular field has part of a DMV in it with evidence that there may have been an impromptu market held there over the years supported by the fact that several Medieval coins ie; cut halves and quarters have been found here.
Several fragments of C13th - C14th pottery has also been recovered here.
On this occasion, at least 25 Medieval jug handles were found with several rim sherds and base sherds found.
In all, over 5kg of pottery was bagged.

Pictures of the finds will follow soon.

Next week we are hoping to visit a field that has a Roman farmstead in it that is posh enough to have a tegulae floor in it!
​

Once again, we were privileged to be invited by DigVentures to explore their excavation on The Holy Island of Lindisfarne this September 2023.

This time around, and for the first time, all three team members AND their partners stayed on the island!

DigVentures and their excavation team had unearthed 7 Anglo-Saxon coins as well as lots of burials and a huge/deep ditch which looks to be earlier than the Anglo-Saxon cemetery. 
We got to work on the spoil heaps and trench bases and recovered another 8 styca's and Sceattas so, in total, 15 coins have been found this year.
One of the coins represents the shrine of St Cuthbert after the first Viking attack and is extremely rare.
Some of the other coins are also very rare!

We also checked out the wildlife around the island and noticed quite a few dead sea birds, mainly Razorbills.
The Autumn migration is already underway with geese, waders and starlings, all doing their Autumn thing.

Lindisfarne is quite special, not just for the Dig, but the interactions, comradery and fun we had shared between the six of us.
We even had a short session listening to music through a set of headphones and a headphone amp featuring Anna Lapwood and Bonobo at the Royal Albert Hall. That session was memorable as emotions ran high, resulting in goose bumps and tears.

We are already looking forward to returning next year...

We are fortunate to be allowed continued access to our new permission where we thought that there may be an Anglo-Saxon settlement.

As per the last post we published where 4 Anglo-Saxon coins were recovered, we recovered another 5 coins, one of them being extremely rare.
The coin is a new variety of sceat, being that of King Alchred AD 765 - 774.

Another surprising fact is that we have only recovered a few pieces of pottery, and that is from any period!
No Saxon pottery as yet, but Medieval and a couple of Roman sherds have surfaced.
What is strange is that we've recovered 7 Roman brooches and fragments as well as other Roman metallic items, but very little pottery.

As can be seen from our Flickr site, there are several Medieval metallic artefacts but, again, proportionately less pottery.
Another oddity is the lack of C12th to C15th coinage with only 2 coins coming up, a Richard Ist penny and your good old favourite, a penny of Edward Ist.

We're going to venture back soon to carry on our survey and see if any more interesting artefacts come to light.

​Meanwhile, here's a link to our latest finds <here>

​We'll report back soon.....

We visited a brand new permission last week that we gained in May this year.
We suspected that the site is Anglo-Saxon due to the research we carried out.

Unfortunately, the site has been ransacked by nighthawkers over the last 5 years, so many rare Anglo-Saxon coins and artefacts will have been stolen.

The first coin to emerge was indeed a Saxon styca of Aethelred II dating to AD 840 - AD 858.
Another styca and two sceats were also recovered during the same visit.
As well as Saxon coinage, Roman coins and artefacts also surfaced.
Several pieces of lead and small ferrous items were encountered reflecting that the site had been a very site over the years.
Saxon pins, mounts and Medieval objects also saw the light of day.

For the images of this visit, please visit this link: flic.kr/s/aHBqjARRT8

The archaeological dig at our Yorkshire farm went really well with lots of Roman pottery coming up including some fantastic large pieces!
Interesting to see the sizes of some of the pits and ditches.

There will be another report soon!

Well, after a false start due to the JCB having a technical problem the dig got underway with a ditch appearing within the first few minutes.
It wasn't long before several more features started to show including pits, post holes and other yet-to-be-explored archaeology.

​Here are a few of the first images showing just some of the features:

​There will be more images and news over the next few days.....

Next week see's the start of our annual dig in East Yorkshire.
​People from all over the world will be returning to one of the most popular digs carried out by DigVentures.

The JCB will cut the first trenches on Monday morning and we'll be there to survey the spoil heaps and trench floors.
The archaeologists are also conducting remote sensing in other areas including an area that we suspect may be a shrine site.

Whilst there, we will try and catch up with a few landowners as to the state of their harvest progress.
One has potatoes growing in a field that has produced the most Anglo-Saxon artefacts in any field we have ever surveyed.
Another farm (a new permission) has invited us to survey an area that has had nighthawkers stealing the history there for the last 5 years.
This could be another Anglo-Saxon site.

There are 4 more new permissions that we will be visiting during the dig.

Hopefully, we'll have more news and photo's over the next couple of weeks.

Our sites that were productive have now showing signs of serious 'artefact diminution' 
We could in essence search the entire landholding of all the permissions we have but this would be an impossible task due to our life-time expectancies.
After all, we've only targeted a small area of a farm to conduct a survey with no expectation to survey any other area of that farm.
So, if we had permission to survey 50 farms, that would, in reality, be 50 fields. A majority of farms have far more than 50 fields under their ownership.

So, after a work injury in April, we ventured out on a beautiful sunny day to visit 5 farms that we had researched with a view to asking for permission to survey.

The first farm was down a very long farm track.
We parked up next to the kennels with two beautiful labs that were wagging their tails enthusiastically. 
Our research showed that there may be a Saxon settlement there so we were quite excited at the prospect of gaining a permission here.
The landowner came out to greet us and after the initial 'cold' meet we got on really well with him. He did make a point of the dogs not barking, he said that they always bark at any approaching vehicle or person!
He was surprised by our knowledge of the area.
A downside to the visit was to learn that nighthawkers had targeted the same area we wished to survey 5-years on-the-trot.
Unfortunately, this scum had come across what we'd suspected to be a special site. Hopefully we can rescue the remaining artefacts that may be there. 

The second farm we visited has evidence of Romano-British and, perhaps, Anglo-Saxon habitation.
The farmhouse is quite a distance from our survey site and is adjacent to his son's house and land.
Again, we were invited to return as soon as the crops are harvested.​ 

The third farm has definitely got Roman history there.
After a good exchange of history and cultural discussions, we were again invited to return at harvest time.

The fourth farm visit was again successful with the landowner saying we could come back at harvest. 
Our suspicions of Roman activity were verified when the landowner said the other detectorists had found Roman coins there.

The fifth farm however was a definite 'no'. 
This was quite a strange affair as the person we spoke to was the landowners son and came out with some odd remarks.
He said "we don't like the idea of people walking around our fields".
Another comment was "how would you like it if someone was walking around your garden?"
Another comment was "if others see you detecting, hundreds will start to come".
This was a legitimate request to survey their field and I'm afraid that if we could ascertain that there's a large Roman settlement there, nighthawkers will eventually find the same evidence.

Phase 2 of our permission requests will start in ernest soon......

​Let's hope that our new 2023/2024 season starts well and the shoulder injury sustained earlier this year doesn't affect our progress!

We revisited a 24-acre stubble field that has produced several artefacts from the Roman period to modern day items.
This was out 3rd visit with still a large section of the field to cover.
The stubble was fairly soft and the soil is a silty loam which is lovely to dig as it's quite loose.

​We were confident that there would be further Medieval artefacts within the plough soil.
Apart from a few Medieval artefacts, nine Medieval and Post Medieval coins were recovered.
Modern coins were also found, including a nice George III sixpence dated 1816.
A surprise find was a Roman trumpet brooch.
Another nice recovery was a bi-conical and decorated spindle whorl.
 
A large amount of Post Medieval coins have been recovered in this particular field as well as a few dress hooks.

​All together, we recovered 9 silver hammered coins.

​HD images for the days finds can be seen here.