Well, ...here it is.... our first year together as a team of three members forming The PAST!
And what a way to celebrate with a beautiful bronze stater of the Corieltauvi tribe, fantastic Roman brooches and coins and a fine example of a Henry VI penny from Calais!! This was going to be a very memorable day indeed!
The day started off miserablely with the rain that we knew was forecast for that morning. We sat in the support vehicle (which may be changed ...as we burnt the clutch out the other week!) and waited for the rain to stop. On cue, it did stop and we donned the Muck Boots then jumped in the 4x4 and set off down the field as it was a huge walk otherwise.
On arrival at the far end of the field we kitted up and started the survey from where we left off last week.
The Déus' were set up in GMP and 13" x 11" coils GMP mode alternated with the Full Tone setting, Rob "Tracking" and I was using the "Manual" setting in 18khz.
The Full Tone setting took a little getting used to as it produced sounds I'd never heard form the Déus before. Rob gave it a go too and we decided that we quite like it. It's so easy though to flick between modes to check any differences in the signals.
We will certainly be giving it another go next week when we conclude the survey in this field.
We moved all the way along the southern edge of the field without anything exciting happening! Must admit, as we got nearer to the fence where we found lots of RB items on the farm next door our expectations rose. We got to the fence between the two farms and NOTHING! We couldn't believe that five feet away in the next field was a wealth of RB archaeology!!! We then thought cleverly .....we decided to follow the fence that split the farms in the hope of finding more Romano-British..... WRONG again! Nothing at all... this had us scratching our heads like we had a serious case of nits! How could so much stuff be just a few feet away at the other side of the fence (which obviously didn't exist in 43AD) and yet here on this side we had nothing!
We eventually got to a point along the fence line and decided to turn 180 degrees and come back in the opposite direction we had just travelled.
It was on this leg of the survey that I decided to try the new setting again using Full Tones.... two seconds later I got a cracking signal. I changed back to GMP just to see what difference there was. Not much really as the Full tones gave some weird yet bright sounds and GMP gave the usual "this is a great signal DIG IT!!!". The figures registered 81 for both settings by the way.
Rob was interested in my new settings and with what they may have produced. I said "This is brooch territory"... Rob smiled sarcastically.
As I turned over the first small spadefull Rob exclaimed "Roman!" and as he said that we caught a glimpse of what we thought was a large Roman coin such as a follis or dupondius. As I dropped to my knees to examine the newly unearthed soil Rob changed his plea to "Jeez.... it's a brooch!"
Wowee.... what a stonker of a brooch... a huge trumpet fibula with its pin still attached. Rob, Steve and I just stared in amazement.
Next were two Roman coins and I moaned that I'd not found one.
My next signal produced a Roman coin....a lovely denarius... a Roman coin each now LOL!!
The next artefact was a really nice Celtic belt slider from Steves XP Gold Maxx Power and MASSIVE 18" x 15" search coil. All sorts of medieval and RB items appeared
but they were well spread. If someone came onto the field and searched it randomly, most of it would have been missed for sure.
We broke for late lunch after completing the southern third of the field.
We then started on the northern section of the 24 acre field. The first signal after lunch was the cracking bronze starter, a very good start to the afternoon session. The stater is of the Corieltauvi tribe based in the East Midland and was gold plated at some point in its past.
More Roman coins emerged and another superb Roman fibula was recovered... a headstud type showing a vivd blue enammel on the headstud itself.
We came to the conclusion that the day wouldn't be complete without the ubiquitous hammered coin to keep the majority of the forums happy.
Sure enough Rob came to the rescue with a superb hammered coin to fit the bill. It was a Henry VI penny, Calais mint c.1422.
All in all, a great day to celebrate our first year as The PAST.
We have plans to balance out the Celtic and Roman sites we have with some early medieval and medieval sites to keep things interesting.
After all... it's nice to find a lovely decorated spindle whorl or a beautiful strapend buckle for example.
This could be the future of The PAST.......
For the images of the day please click here.
And what a way to celebrate with a beautiful bronze stater of the Corieltauvi tribe, fantastic Roman brooches and coins and a fine example of a Henry VI penny from Calais!! This was going to be a very memorable day indeed!
The day started off miserablely with the rain that we knew was forecast for that morning. We sat in the support vehicle (which may be changed ...as we burnt the clutch out the other week!) and waited for the rain to stop. On cue, it did stop and we donned the Muck Boots then jumped in the 4x4 and set off down the field as it was a huge walk otherwise.
On arrival at the far end of the field we kitted up and started the survey from where we left off last week.
The Déus' were set up in GMP and 13" x 11" coils GMP mode alternated with the Full Tone setting, Rob "Tracking" and I was using the "Manual" setting in 18khz.
The Full Tone setting took a little getting used to as it produced sounds I'd never heard form the Déus before. Rob gave it a go too and we decided that we quite like it. It's so easy though to flick between modes to check any differences in the signals.
We will certainly be giving it another go next week when we conclude the survey in this field.
We moved all the way along the southern edge of the field without anything exciting happening! Must admit, as we got nearer to the fence where we found lots of RB items on the farm next door our expectations rose. We got to the fence between the two farms and NOTHING! We couldn't believe that five feet away in the next field was a wealth of RB archaeology!!! We then thought cleverly .....we decided to follow the fence that split the farms in the hope of finding more Romano-British..... WRONG again! Nothing at all... this had us scratching our heads like we had a serious case of nits! How could so much stuff be just a few feet away at the other side of the fence (which obviously didn't exist in 43AD) and yet here on this side we had nothing!
We eventually got to a point along the fence line and decided to turn 180 degrees and come back in the opposite direction we had just travelled.
It was on this leg of the survey that I decided to try the new setting again using Full Tones.... two seconds later I got a cracking signal. I changed back to GMP just to see what difference there was. Not much really as the Full tones gave some weird yet bright sounds and GMP gave the usual "this is a great signal DIG IT!!!". The figures registered 81 for both settings by the way.
Rob was interested in my new settings and with what they may have produced. I said "This is brooch territory"... Rob smiled sarcastically.
As I turned over the first small spadefull Rob exclaimed "Roman!" and as he said that we caught a glimpse of what we thought was a large Roman coin such as a follis or dupondius. As I dropped to my knees to examine the newly unearthed soil Rob changed his plea to "Jeez.... it's a brooch!"
Wowee.... what a stonker of a brooch... a huge trumpet fibula with its pin still attached. Rob, Steve and I just stared in amazement.
Next were two Roman coins and I moaned that I'd not found one.
My next signal produced a Roman coin....a lovely denarius... a Roman coin each now LOL!!
The next artefact was a really nice Celtic belt slider from Steves XP Gold Maxx Power and MASSIVE 18" x 15" search coil. All sorts of medieval and RB items appeared
but they were well spread. If someone came onto the field and searched it randomly, most of it would have been missed for sure.
We broke for late lunch after completing the southern third of the field.
We then started on the northern section of the 24 acre field. The first signal after lunch was the cracking bronze starter, a very good start to the afternoon session. The stater is of the Corieltauvi tribe based in the East Midland and was gold plated at some point in its past.
More Roman coins emerged and another superb Roman fibula was recovered... a headstud type showing a vivd blue enammel on the headstud itself.
We came to the conclusion that the day wouldn't be complete without the ubiquitous hammered coin to keep the majority of the forums happy.
Sure enough Rob came to the rescue with a superb hammered coin to fit the bill. It was a Henry VI penny, Calais mint c.1422.
All in all, a great day to celebrate our first year as The PAST.
We have plans to balance out the Celtic and Roman sites we have with some early medieval and medieval sites to keep things interesting.
After all... it's nice to find a lovely decorated spindle whorl or a beautiful strapend buckle for example.
This could be the future of The PAST.......
For the images of the day please click here.
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