Last of the Plumpton Roman Villa

I happened to have a day off from work last week and debated over checking up on Ovingdean, the Culver Project and Plumpton Roman Villa. I found myself staring at the fine trenches of the villa and the site ditch once again. They have uncovered quite a bit in the past three weeks since I was last up there.

Embarrassingly I forgot my camera so I only have one measly photograph of my find but the crops that I definitely thought were leeks a few weeks ago have transformed into corn. A bit like when Jesus turned water into wine. This turned out to be beneficial to me because the large corn stalks provided much needed shade while I was excavating in Trench 3.

Cow Skull, date unknown at this point.

When I first arrived, I was placed back in Trench 1 with the American student Megan whom I had met a couple weeks ago. We worked on the edge of the ditch, attempting to determine the natural. Plough damage sure made it hard to discern. After a bit, the new supervisor whose name I have now forgotten (sorry!) asked me if I had done this sort of thing before (lots of head nodding and fake smiling) and I found myself relocated to Trench 3 to remove a cow skull that was partially excavated in the lovely hard baked clay. I spent a couple hours there with Andrew (?) a college student who had never done any archaeology before and we made a plan of action to sort of chisel our way underneath the skull in order to prise it neatly from the ground. It did work, surprisingly, because I was able to extract it myself and place it into a tray of bubble wrap. Then, as it was transferred to another tray, it began to crumble. At least our extraction method was successful.

A Twitterer on Twitter commented on my photo and suggested that perhaps it was the Plumpton Poisoner until I pointed out that this skull was indeed a cow and not a human. Although we cannot rule out the cow as the one responsible for adding strychnine to somebody's tea back in the 1935.

Till next time folks! I will likely have a new update on Ovingdean next time!

Plumpton Roman Villa

Main Trench where the villa is thought to be situated.

Much overdue, but during my week of annual leave I was also able to spend two days on the Sussex School of Archaeology (SSA) summer project out in Plumpton, East Sussex. What a gorgeous site, tucked away behind the college in a field of corn (they looked like leeks). The site itself has been known about for quite some time (circa the past 30 years) through extensive field-walking and geophysical survey. There is thought to be a Roman villa with a hypocaust system (heated flooring), bathhouse,  a ditched enclosure and field system. The date, however is still unknown. Hence the need for an archaeological investigation!

Lizzie and Megan washing finds.

Ditched Enclosure.

 We began by attempting to find the edge to the ditch. Not as easy as it sounds. There is extensive plough damage and the soil was quite confusing to read as it kept appearing as if there were other features next to the ditch.

Some bits and bobs were recovered - pottery, teeth, a nice bone specimen.

Sadly I  have not been able to return to the site for the past week and a half so I am intrigued if any questions have been answered or, as archaeology tends to go, if a plethora of even more questions has arisen!

Another ditched enclosure? Pete is surveying the trench.

Culver Project AKA Bridge Farm

Bridge Farm  was one of those digs that I tried to make it to last summer, but as life would have it,  I unfortunately ran out of time. This year however, I managed to get up there for three glorious days. Located just north of Lewes in Barcombe, East Sussex, Bridge Farm is an on going Roman excavation project. It is the site of a Romano-British settlement where evidence has been discovered for domestic and industrial use from the late first century to the late fourth century. Although there is also evidence of usage from the Mesolithic to the 19th century, the focus is on the Roman settlement. The site has an impressive trench teeming with an abundance of students, and volunteers.

Run by Rob Wallace and David Millum, I was placed in the main trench to excavate a post hole which I successfully sectioned, uncovering some CBM and charcoal. It appeared to sort of expand underneath the natural, so there was a little bit of tunneling involved in my work.

Natural inclusions included flint and ironstone (how I have not missed you since last summer!!) Day two I measured and sketched out my feature - my least favorite activity but it was good practice nonetheless! Took some levels with the dumpy and measured my grid coordinates as well.










Day three I joined the CAP students in practicing how to use the resistivity equipment (a geophysical field survey) which seemingly appeared quite straight forward but after setting up our grid (20 by 40 metres) we kept encountering problems at line 16 with the machine deleting lines. Third try appeared to work and the grid was successfully completed. Resistivity, I was told, measures the moisture in the ground through electrical resistance. It is best conducted after a good rainfall, or period of rain and as it had piddled a bit the night before, this would be a good chance to conduct a survey. Although, apparently this type of survey takes eight times as long as a magnetometry survey.

Results are published on the Culver Project website http://culverproject.co.uk/?p=1304

Oyster Shells!

Credit to Parasitic Tube Worms at http://www.asnailsodyssey.com
(This is not an oyster shell, just an example of the Polydora parasite.)

 She sells seashells by the seashore!

Except these shells were no where near the shoreline. One of BHAS's late January 2014 recording sessions involved weighing and categorising oyster shells, one of the many items found at Rocky Clump in East Sussex (not by me, I'm afraid). There were quite a few bags full of dirty, fragmented shells, some nearly entirely intact. Back in the day, Oysters were a staple food in the Roman Empire and were one of the resources that was exploited when they arrived in Iron Age Britain in 43 CE. Recording these shells was not too difficult as I had to differentiate between top and bottom, weigh it (or them if they were too fragmented to differentiate) and note any parasitic or human activity (such as breaking open the shell to eat). One of the most common parasites that I kept encountering was the Polydora (see photo on right).

Credits to the lovely Lesley Hains. Me, running on three hours of sleep, with a nearly intact oyster.

Rocky Clump Wrap Up For 2013

Photo courtesy of Lesley Hains, pictured on the left, myself in the
middle and Hestor Adams on the right.

I never find anything remotely exciting
but somebody unearthed an animal skull - sheep?

Rocky Clump wrapped up excavations for the season on December 7th, although I went back on the 10th to "tickle up" (so to speak) the ground for the final photographs and drawings. It was a cloudy-sunny day with a wonderful turnout of archaeologists so plenty was accomplished. The site has since been back-filled from the 20th. As you may have noticed, we were all a bit cold as December has sneakily crept upon us.

However, the ground was still as supple as ever for troweling. With luck, new trenches and test pits will be opened up around the end of March or early April 2014 as soon as planning and acquired permission has been met. We will be exploring an area where we think some roundhouses are. In the meantime, the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society has several activities planned this winter - winter walks, lectures, museum visits - to keep us all connected and to keep our archaeological and historical appetites whet.

Areas where I have been troweling.

 Not surprisingly, I uncovered more chunky flints, the usual bits of pot and flaky bits of bone. No special finds yet on my part but there were a couple animal skulls that were uncovered in one of our large trenches. Their identity is speculated to be that of sheep.

Till next time, adios!

Stories from "Windy" Clump (2013)

My slot in the middle.

I try to make it out to Rocky (AKA Windy) Clump at least once a week now, but last Wednesday (the 23rd) left a long gap of 1.5 weeks since I had last been out there. I was placed back in my little muddy Stonehenge slot, amongst my ring of large friendly flint stones and chunks of white chalk. John, the director of RC, bestowed upon me a new nickname on Wednesday in honour of my new troweling context (announced in his weekly e-newsletter of the shenanigans that we get up to): "Pete, Chelsea (Rocky to her friends) and Fran, along with Mark worked on the floor surface north of the barn, and it is producing lots of archaeology. Chelsea had lots of large flint nodules in her section, and was loathe to move them, while Fran and Pete got down to those lower levels where there were fewer flints." That pretty sums up excavations conditions on Wednesday, with many poor attempts to find a comfortable middle ground amidst the flints that were slowly closing in around me like angry gnomes, to rest my knees on my foam gardening mat . I troweled up the usual bits of pot, fragmented animal bones and teeth (an assumption here), fire-cracked flint and a few bits that looked very important but were covered in so much mud that they are probably going to turn out to be just clumps of ironstone or sandstone when cleaned.

Fernando, Rocky, Windy.

The weather kindly held up but that cheeky wind had me chasing Pete's kneeling mat around the field. There were no inquisitive cows again, although we did have a rather irritable cow mooing over to the next pasture whose voice echoed eerily around the downs. We concluded that he liked to hear the sound of his own voice. 

Rocky Clump, Stanmer, East Sussex (2013)

Rocky Clump, Oct. 2013

It is quite a difference digging here at Rocky Clump than at the Isfield site in July/August. I was first made aware of this project, managed by the Brighton and Hove Archaeological Society, whilst I was enjoying my time at the Bentley Woodfair at the end of September. Rocky Clump is a Late Iron Age to 4th century AD Romano-British enclosure and farmstead, with numerous post holes and pits, and a series of very large ditches forming an earlier enclosure. In the past, an area discovered strewn with animal bones over a flint cobbled surface was believed to be the site of a butchery location. Finds have included a complete cow and dog burial, and last season a baby burial was found in one of the ditches.

In my little Stonehenge.

Excavation conditions are not redeposited clay and extremely hard to trowel through, but rather lovely loose, chalky soil. I have not stumbled upon any special finds yet, but plenty of bits of what looks to be IA pot, animal fragmented bones, fire-cracked flint and other bits of flint with the bulb and platform. Last Saturday I was back working on the barn structure area, removing the last traces of fill. Director John Funnell observed, in his biweekly e-report of Rocky Clump, that I "did have a nice collection of large flint nodules, some in a circle, but is it a feature or creative archaeology, we will find out..." Have I created my very own Stonehenge in my slot? With me, I should think it very possible. There is definitely something going on there it looks like, whether of my own creation or of something else.

Lesley's Roman coin, Oct. 2013

 





At this point in the autumn, each clear Saturday and
Wednesday are a blessing to dig in. Hold off, ye snow, frost and rain! As soon as conditions become unrealistic to continue working in, I believe this site will be back-filled and come March 2014, a new section of the field will be opened to for us to excavate. Therefore leaving me to discover a new hobby to tide me over during this upcoming English winter!

And Yet Again, More Experimental Archaeology, Sussex (2013)

SSA Manager, Lisa Fisher in front of our exhibit.

An array of food: crab apples, acorns, black mustard seeds, fermenting elderberries.

The weekend of September 20-22nd, I assisted in promoting the Sussex School of Archaeology at the Bentley Country Park Woodfair. We had several exciting projects occurring such as flint knapping, bone carving, Mesolithic and Roman cooking, spinning and weaving, repairing a Saxon sunken-feature dwelling and teaching children how to make pinch pots. There were also several dishes of raw food that would have been available in the Mesolithic, Iron Age and Roman periods on display that led to hearty discussions with visitors passing by our table. We swapped knowledge throughout the two days that I was there. Many had never heard of the SSA since the school is brand new this past year. I described some of the projects that the SSA has been doing such as the excavations in Isfield and the past two weekends of reconstructing pottery. Visiting groups of children were especially fascinated when I donned my safety goggles and pounded some fire-cracked flint in a mortar and pestle to use as temper for making pottery.

Me, up to mischief as usual.

Experimental Archaeology, Sussex (2013)

Iron Age bowl I whipped together.

One of the final boxes of pots.

Over the course of two fun, filled Sundays, the ladies from the Sussex School of Archaeology (SSA) and the Sussex Archaeological Society (SAS) (and myself) reconstructed and created several pieces of Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman pottery. The lighter coloured clay came from the Isfield site in East Sussex and is to be fired and tested to see if the Iron Age pottery that we found there during our excavations was  indeed of a local origin.

 

Pounding out some fire-cracked flint to add to the clay for inclusions.

 The firing finally occurred on Sept. 15th, where we built a small bonfire covered with wet hay. Unfortunately, the firing involved several small explosions of which some pottery may have completely shattered. Details will be known later on this week.

The bonfiring, phase 2.

Stobi, Macedonia (2012)

Excavating a residential room, Stobi, Macedonia (2012).

"The excavations in 2011 and 2012 were focused on the Northern Residential Area of Ancient Stobi, inhabited from the Late Hellenistic till the Late Roman period. Further excavations at the same area are planned for next season in conjunction with the efforts of the National Institute (NI) Stobi in order to preserve and display this part of the site. The layers to be studied in 2013 mainly include the Roman and Late Roman periods of the existing ancient neighborhood." -source bhfieldschool.org