After a shaky start to the new season we are finally getting back on track with the quality of recoveries.
Due to the reluctance to retrace our steps on stubble, as we have already covered the ground when newly seeded, we have hit a bit of a lull.
However, our staple sites are now being re-drilled on an increasing scale so we should be up-to-speed very soon with photo's and stories of our surveys!
Our site today (codenamed MC; 560 acres) is one that we have visited quite a few times over the last two years, 9th March 2014 was the date of the first visit to be precise!
Rob & I arrived to find that the field we were going to survey (84 acres) was drilled with winter wheat and as smooth as silk.
Within minutes of starting, pieces of bronze partifacts began to show.
One hundred feet in and a lovely Colchester style Roman fibula was recovered from the field surface.
On the return pass a super Roman umbonate brooch was recovered, also from the field surface!
We decided to check out other parts of the field we'd never surveyed. As expected, nothing was found so we then decided to move to a field nearby that was still in stubble.
We surveyed an area that we had marked with GPS as a likely votive site but nothing came to light showing that the area was already well searched on the last visit. This also showed that there was little or no compression of the soil over time.
We reverted back to the initial 84 acre survey field and continued with a tight grid pattern covering a selected area that we had identified as a possible settlement site.
23 Roman coins, 4 Roman fibula, a Celtic toggle fastener, fibula parts, a cut-half hammered penny of Henry III and several pieces of Roman pottery were recovered on the day.
One of the brooches recovered was one we had never encountered before, so we're checking various resources to ID it. Again, this was on the field surface!
With the light fading we decided to call in at the farmhouse and say goodbye.
The day didn't end there, we were on the way home when I received an email from home saying that a landowner had 'phoned and that we were more than welcome to survey his land when the OSR and winter wheat were harvested next year! Something to look forward to I say!
It had only took 8 weeks for him to contact me! LOL! :D
For images of the days recoveries please click HERE.
Due to the reluctance to retrace our steps on stubble, as we have already covered the ground when newly seeded, we have hit a bit of a lull.
However, our staple sites are now being re-drilled on an increasing scale so we should be up-to-speed very soon with photo's and stories of our surveys!
Our site today (codenamed MC; 560 acres) is one that we have visited quite a few times over the last two years, 9th March 2014 was the date of the first visit to be precise!
Rob & I arrived to find that the field we were going to survey (84 acres) was drilled with winter wheat and as smooth as silk.
Within minutes of starting, pieces of bronze partifacts began to show.
One hundred feet in and a lovely Colchester style Roman fibula was recovered from the field surface.
On the return pass a super Roman umbonate brooch was recovered, also from the field surface!
We decided to check out other parts of the field we'd never surveyed. As expected, nothing was found so we then decided to move to a field nearby that was still in stubble.
We surveyed an area that we had marked with GPS as a likely votive site but nothing came to light showing that the area was already well searched on the last visit. This also showed that there was little or no compression of the soil over time.
We reverted back to the initial 84 acre survey field and continued with a tight grid pattern covering a selected area that we had identified as a possible settlement site.
23 Roman coins, 4 Roman fibula, a Celtic toggle fastener, fibula parts, a cut-half hammered penny of Henry III and several pieces of Roman pottery were recovered on the day.
One of the brooches recovered was one we had never encountered before, so we're checking various resources to ID it. Again, this was on the field surface!
With the light fading we decided to call in at the farmhouse and say goodbye.
The day didn't end there, we were on the way home when I received an email from home saying that a landowner had 'phoned and that we were more than welcome to survey his land when the OSR and winter wheat were harvested next year! Something to look forward to I say!
It had only took 8 weeks for him to contact me! LOL! :D
For images of the days recoveries please click HERE.
RSS Feed
