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.
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.
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