Priscan Archaeology
  • PA Home Page
  • PA Blogs
  • Meet The PA Team
  • PA Methodology & Techniques
  • The Badge of St Ursula
  • PA Milestones
  • Priscan Archaeological Treasures

Saturday 18th April 2015

23/4/2015

0 Comments

 
A pre-journey team breakfast snack of warm mini-doughnuts was the start to a very good day indeed. The weather was perfect with no wind and a bright sky.

The survey area was planted with spring barley and had a growth height of three inches which was ideal for fieldwalking providing us with superb surface visibilty. This was to prove invaluable during the day.

All three machines were fitted with the 13" x 11" coils and running on the standard GMP mode with "Tracking" automatically adjusting the ground balancing properties.

The first pass, which started in the contaminated area where we were parked, took us down the longest length of the field and produced modern lead and a nice conditioned 1882 Victorian penny.
The second pass heading back towards the support vehicle was even quieter with no good signals and no surface finds. It was at the very end of this run that our fortunes were about to change. A signal was located just below the surface, at five millimeters, in the highly contaminated zone next to the parking area. The rusty coloured disc was the first coin to be recovered with the new Garrett AT Pro-Pointer! On cleaning, it began to show that it was an Anglo-Saxon coin of Aethelred II (The Unready) dating to c.997 AD

A nice lead document seal dating to the mid C17th was recovered along with spindle whorls, an Elizabethan sixpence and a Phillip & Mary groat, along with various pieces of flint.
A polished spherical stone was found and was probably used as canon fodder by the Royalist forces camped there.

However, the most suprising finds were recovered from the field surface in the form of eight large fragments of Iron Age quern stones! We thought it was amazing when the second one was found but as the number recovered rose, our amazement turned into pure astonishment. The total for the quern stones recovered for the area is now ten!

After all the excitement of the quern stones and the Anglo-Saxon penny it was decided that we would have an hour on another permission. This was the one where we had to abandon the survey due to the inclement weather last week. The time spent should be enough to end two surveys in one go!
The first signal on this section was the surface find of the gold plated stater of the Corieltauvi tribe. More musket balls were recovered as well as a lovely Elizabethan sixpence in great condition, our second Elizabethan sixpence of the day!

The images of all the recoveries can be seen here.


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Archives

    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    November 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    May 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    July 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    April 2021
    December 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

    Picture
Home   Team   St Ursula   Artefacts  Blog