After the excitement of the last two weeks recovering medieval items it was the turn of the Romans this weekend!
After leaving it for as long as possible due to the inclement weather, a call was made to the landowner of permission 'MC' to get his verdict on the field conditions.
Mrs Landowner answered the 'phone and said that they'd had torrential rain the day before. She said that it should be ok to survey the field in question.
This field is quite a large one and it's one we haven't had many dealings with. The first time was a 10 minute reccy before the rain won. The second time was when it was still in stubble so we thought it a good time to have a proper go. Wrong!!!...... I could see the top of a tractor that was in the same field but in a dip and it was moving. Minutes later it appeared with a huge plough set-up following it!!! We bravely moved along ahead of the machine in the hope we could beat it but we couldn't. We decided to leave before we were ploughed in with the history there.
Here's a picture of the field at 'MC' with Steve modelling for us.
This time, there are 4 gold staters hidden in the image :)
For a larger picture to make it easier click here.
We got there and it looked ok from the support vehicle. On closer inspection it didn't look quite as salubrious as we first thought. It was quite rough with tracks of smoother areas about 3 to 4ft wide. It had NOT been seeded!
The first signal was a superb Roman Umbonate type brooch complete with its pin.
Moments later the second signal was a Roman nail cleaner.
Although the signs were good we decided to postpone the survey of this field due to the conditions.
We drove to the farm and explained the situation to the landowner and asked if we could survey the field next door to the one we came out of? "No problem.... help yourselves". Back into the 4x4 and back down the hugely pitted (and flooded) track to the newly seeded field next door.
This again is a very large field and one we surveyed in March this year, again when it was seeded.
The first pass down the field resulted in all sorts of items being recovered with a "Roman" feel to them. The second pass saw more of the same being recovered.
It was the third pass that things started hotting up. A superb trumpet fibula complete with pin was recovered from 3 inches. Literally 3ft further along was a second fantastic trumpet fibula, again complete with its pin! It was also at this position that a piece of pottery was seen on the surface. We'd already found small pieces of samian ware in both fields and this was a much larger piece. On closer inspection the awesomeness of it became clear..... it was a section of a high status dish with superb detail still visible. This could be the site of a shrine or even part of a villa as a denarius was recovered from here last March.
We were all gobsmacked at all three finds coming up from such a small area. Further along the field yet another Umbonate brooch was recovered!
Three more runs and the light began to fade......it's the nearest we've ever been to nighthawking!!!
Now, it's a case of surveying the rest of the field next week and perhaps having a look at another huge field that is in stubble at the moment. There's a scheduled monument in the corner of this one but we've never been in this field before.
As usual, you can see the photos of the finds here.
After leaving it for as long as possible due to the inclement weather, a call was made to the landowner of permission 'MC' to get his verdict on the field conditions.
Mrs Landowner answered the 'phone and said that they'd had torrential rain the day before. She said that it should be ok to survey the field in question.
This field is quite a large one and it's one we haven't had many dealings with. The first time was a 10 minute reccy before the rain won. The second time was when it was still in stubble so we thought it a good time to have a proper go. Wrong!!!...... I could see the top of a tractor that was in the same field but in a dip and it was moving. Minutes later it appeared with a huge plough set-up following it!!! We bravely moved along ahead of the machine in the hope we could beat it but we couldn't. We decided to leave before we were ploughed in with the history there.
Here's a picture of the field at 'MC' with Steve modelling for us.
This time, there are 4 gold staters hidden in the image :)
For a larger picture to make it easier click here.
We got there and it looked ok from the support vehicle. On closer inspection it didn't look quite as salubrious as we first thought. It was quite rough with tracks of smoother areas about 3 to 4ft wide. It had NOT been seeded!
The first signal was a superb Roman Umbonate type brooch complete with its pin.
Moments later the second signal was a Roman nail cleaner.
Although the signs were good we decided to postpone the survey of this field due to the conditions.
We drove to the farm and explained the situation to the landowner and asked if we could survey the field next door to the one we came out of? "No problem.... help yourselves". Back into the 4x4 and back down the hugely pitted (and flooded) track to the newly seeded field next door.
This again is a very large field and one we surveyed in March this year, again when it was seeded.
The first pass down the field resulted in all sorts of items being recovered with a "Roman" feel to them. The second pass saw more of the same being recovered.
It was the third pass that things started hotting up. A superb trumpet fibula complete with pin was recovered from 3 inches. Literally 3ft further along was a second fantastic trumpet fibula, again complete with its pin! It was also at this position that a piece of pottery was seen on the surface. We'd already found small pieces of samian ware in both fields and this was a much larger piece. On closer inspection the awesomeness of it became clear..... it was a section of a high status dish with superb detail still visible. This could be the site of a shrine or even part of a villa as a denarius was recovered from here last March.
We were all gobsmacked at all three finds coming up from such a small area. Further along the field yet another Umbonate brooch was recovered!
Three more runs and the light began to fade......it's the nearest we've ever been to nighthawking!!!
Now, it's a case of surveying the rest of the field next week and perhaps having a look at another huge field that is in stubble at the moment. There's a scheduled monument in the corner of this one but we've never been in this field before.
As usual, you can see the photos of the finds here.
Paul and Steve wondering why Rob isn't detecting!
The last 250 metres to go!
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