We’re back with a full three week community dig!. Read our daily updates, scroll down for day 1.
For those of you who find reading on line difficult, Peter’s posts are preceded with an audio clip.
Friday 26th August THE LAST DAY OF WHAT HAS TURNED OUT TO BE A REMARKABLE SEASON.
My head is spinning with what has been discovered this year, the questions answered and numerous more we now face. The Kiln Field, where it all began is now at a stage where we can at long last issue our first report. The lovely kilns along with the surrounding landscape has been dug, we have found an ever changing landscape throughout the Roman era with snippets of the Bronze and Iron age appearing too. The initial aim of this project to investigate two Roman pottery kilns has been completed. Yes I know there is still much to look at in the Kiln Field, but we are thank goodness at a point where we can draw breath and focus elsewhere.
The Kitchen Garden has now become the focus of activity in the next few years. My belief that a Roman building existed under my garden has at last been proven. We have a Channelled Hypocaust under the floor of a Roman building. Dr John Davis was with us this morning and was very impressed with the work that has been done by the wonderful volunteers. So I now pass on my thanks to all of you who have shown so much professionalism in your work this year. The fact that we now have, without any doubt a substantial Roman building on this truly amazing site is all I could ever ask for. So thank you to everyone involved in any way at all, for making this crazy mad dream…..very very real. I will leave you with photos of today, and hope to produce a post in the next few days of the highlights. Thank you so so much to everyone who is part of this project, in whatever way you participate. We are all taking part in a wonderful community project that is being noticed throughout the archaeological community. A final thank you to Martin of Britannia Archaeology for leading us this year. You are an inspiration to all of us. Your guidance gives us the confidence to discover the history of Woodgate, and what a history we are finding. Good night to all and please sleep well. Peter
Thursday 25th August Well here we are on the penultimate day of ARP 2022. The torrential rain forecast we were lucky to miss but had frequent and sometimes heavy showers. For my plants at the nursery I am very grateful. Of course digging was not an option, apart from trying to finish the section in the Kitchen Garden. Thank you to Donna and Deborah and two new friends for doing what they could. Plenty of sieving was done, and as usual many more finds from the subsoil were sent to the finds tent. Jan and a wonderful band of merry cleaners were working their way through the finds. As I said yesterday we have thousands of finds to archive over the coming year, our work is never done!!!
A lovely piece of Nene Valley ware was removed from a sealed context in the KG. Dating approx. 190-290AD. Donna had been waiting to remove this lovely piece of pottery for about a week, and when Martin decided to dig it she threatened him with no cake for a year! So Donna was allowed to dig it out. Andy from Britannia was able to tell us via pics sent to him by Martin, that it was Lower Nene Valley Barbotine scale decoration on a beaker likely with a plain rim. Please see pics attached. I have also posted pics of a piece of Samian ware, I think, found sieving the subsoil in KG. Any help with ID on this would be gratefully received. Looks like a piece of Mortaria.
So tomorrow we have to clean both trenches for final photos. Prepare the KG for backfilling, to be reopened next year. And await our end of dig talk from Martin. Talks will begin around 1pm or soon after, starting in the KG and moving to the Kiln Field around 2.15pm. Britannia will be back next week at some stage to GPS the sections, so we know exactly where all the features are. And to start to plan the dig next year. We really do work one year ahead so we can plan and organise each dig to make sure all the powers that be are happy with what we want to do. A process that takes a lot of patience and planning!! Thank you as always to everyone involved in any way with this amazing project. See you tomorrow for the big REVEAL. Peter
Wednesday 24th August Good evening to all, and a big thank you to everyone taking part today as we head towards the end of another August dig. As previously mentioned I was concerned about not having enough to dig, and now we are going to be covering parts of Kitchen Garden to re-open in future years. The problem with a trench that is not adjoining feature-less ground, means we have no relationship with anything, an archaeologist’s nightmare. Britannia along with Historic England will have to think carefully where we go next year. So we now have undisputed evidence of a Roman building in the KG. We have associated features to the kilns in the Kiln Field. We have at least 8 thousand finds this year already, maybe close to 10 thousand!! The year ahead is already fully booked for finds cleaning and recording. Hope we can actually finish before we start again in 2023! With the threat of thunder storms and possible torrential rainfall tomorrow, we’ll see if that’s correct, we may be only able to sieve. Will just have to wait and see how the weather unfolds. So very briefly, as I have nursery work to attend to, the grids in the KG were dug deeper with careful finds retrieval. The usual CBM and a few pot sherds. The other sections to the west of the trench were 1 finished, cleaned, recorded and photographed. And 2 nearly finished, so a little bit to complete tomorrow. Martin dug section H, I think, in KG to try to find the natural, he found yet more evidence of intense burning and a lovely complete roof tile (albeit in about 7 pieces), but complete nonetheless. We can now compare this roof tile to the one found many many years ago, and see how they compare. I will leave you now to look at photos, and perhaps go to bed knowing we have a wonderful Roman building at Woodgate. Thank you all again for making my dream a reality. Peter
Tuesday 23rd August Well, where to begin? It was lovely to see people from Aylsham Manor on site today, do hope you enjoyed your visit. We also had a group from Wymondham Trefoil Guild in the afternoon, so pleased you could join us. Those of you who couldn’t make it today, we are open on Saturday between 1000 and 1400. This will be the last opportunity to look at our dig sites before we finish for this year.
And so to what happened today. In the Kiln Field, three grids around Grid M that has produced many finds, have been opened. Some pieces of Roman pot have already been found. These will be continued tomorrow. Well done to Kyran, Andrea, Francis, Gill, Lynsey, Mark, Sue Y, Jan and Sue S for working through the heat of the afternoon clearing a huge amount of soil from a couple of these grids. Team work at its best, bravo!
In the Kitchen Garden we are continuing to take down the compact clay surface. Finds again have included tile and pottery, many black as we have a consistent layer of burning. The trench to the west now has 15 separate layers of activities, from Roman to early Victorian and these will be unpicked tomorrow. I don’t know how Martin manages to keep track of it all, but we are so grateful that he does. The trench in the North West corner has Roman demolition under Georgian material. Two days to go to find the solutions.
Once again a big thank you to all who came today, wherever you have been, in the Welcome Tent, the Finds Marquee, on the sieves, in one of the dig sites, serving in the catering wagon. Hope to see you all again tomorrow. Sleep well. Peter
Monday 22nd August Good evening to all and thank you to everyone who was with us today. I have just received phone call from a lorry driver delivering plants and he’s arriving in a few mins. So I will leave you with some lovely photos of today. Just a quick mention to say how lovely to see Jane and Philip back on site today. Please take care of yourselves, but really wonderful to see you recovering.
The focus was KG, and as usual it revealed possibly too much!! The photos of people looking perplexed probably speaks volumes. Sorry, but must go. Hope you can enjoy evening, and looking forward to tomorrow. Peter
Friday 19th August We’ve completed week 2, and nothing much new to report really!!
We had two groups of visitors today. Aylsham in Bloom, very kindly shown around by Wendy. Thank you. And Briston and Melton Constable WI. I was very pleased to talk them around the kiln field, our own reconstruction of a Roman pottery kiln and a tour of the finds tent. We then walked to the Kitchen Garden to listen to Martin explaining what discoveries have been made there….quite a few it turns out!
Not much activity in the kiln field today as most were sent for a major assault on KG. However Chris, Brenda and Frances were continuing on grid M, now given the title ENF152513 P(13006). Lots more kiln fabric was found in the ditch terminus that has already produced a vast quantity of pottery and kiln fabric. One piece in particular caught my attention. A piece of kiln fabric with beautiful finger marks, part of a vent hole and evidence of a willow withie. A full house I believe. Brilliant and thank you. The waste pit was fully excavated along with the north-south ditch. I’m afraid I’m not aware of any finds being retrieved, having been out delivering this morning, nursery work does continue!
Moving on to the KG. Digging continued on the supposed Roman floor, which has slumped into a void beneath it, and interestingly the material below is rather burnt, whereas the material above is not. Why is the void there, could it be a hypocaust? I hardly dare ask the question. Many pieces of box flue tile where recovered today, a clue perhaps. The floor must be dug first thing next week and as we go down through the layers we might find the conclusive evidence. In the northern most part of the ditch, Frances found another coin, which looks to be the same as the one Jan found earlier this week. Dated 347-348 AD. This is in the top of the ditch, but still in a sealed Roman context, which suggests if we have a building it was demolished or burnt sometime before the mid to late 4th century. Well I think that’s correct, there was a lot of information to take in this afternoon! The west side of the trench had a section dug through it, and it produced a lot of CBM and some pot. And to the west end a void was discovered, which again suggests a hypocaust system. I am probably hoping too much for evidence of this elusive Roman building, but I have enormous faith that by the end of next week we will have that proof. One day in the future maybe a few years from now, I can announce to all that the Romano British were living here, had a house here and it had an underfloor heating system. Just had a thought that the hypocaust might have caused the fire that burnt it down. I have no doubt that Martin will tell me when he is certain. A huge thank you to all who helped today in any capacity. A huge thank you to Martin and all at Britannia who have led us brilliantly over the last two weeks. A lot of work still to do, and I know we cannot complete it, so we will cover it over and start again next year. Here was I a few weeks ago wondering if we had enough to dig, and now we have no chance of completing! Having got to understand this site, I must realise we will never be in a position to not have enough to dig, well certainly not in my lifetime. Thank you to all for your help today. We are making huge strides into discovering the history of Woodgate. And I will leave you with this wonderful comment from Martin. No one will ever be able to build on this site because it is so full of archaeology. Music to my ears. Peter.
Thursday 18th August Here we are towards the end of the second week. Help, where does the time go? We had the U3A of North Norfolk with us today and I was delighted to show them around the site. I am able to explain the kiln field but struggle with the kitchen garden, so thank you to Martin for helping me out. I hope you enjoyed your visit and please come and see us again soon.
Most of today was recording and sieving not to mention the finds ladies with heaps of cleaning, bagging and tagging to be done. I am sure I detect a grimace when I walk into the tent and ask for a specific find!! All very well for you Peter, but we do have about 5000 finds already this year! All I can say is sorry!!
Looking back over 6 years digging at ARP it is quite amazing that we have approaching 80000 finds or possibly more, I’ve lost count. The vast majority are all individually labelled and recorded and resting in boxes in my house or with specialists. The tireless work done by the volunteers over the weeks between the digs is indeed quite spectacular. We dig for three weeks, we record for around forty five weeks!! We were asked today why we only dig for three weeks. The answer is partly financial but mostly because of afore-mentioned finds recording. Archaeology is destructive by nature, once you’ve dug a feature you can’t put it back, so that emphasises the necessity of very accurate recording. We are so lucky to have Britannia and other specialists guiding us with this.
So at last to today, which I’m afraid to say was very slow progress. This is all down to the massive amount of drawings and photos needed, mostly in the kitchen garden. As I have mentioned previously, this trench is simply full of features, and so as each section is dug we need to record and photograph. So in the KG we have a Roman floor which has been dug through by Victorians at some stage to insert posts for some sort of structure, long since decayed. We still have that floor in some areas, and that is what we will be digging tomorrow. Martin also wants to open another section to the west of the trench to see what is going on there. There are hundreds of finds coming from the features and from the sieving as well. Many trays will be heading to the finds tent over the next day or two. I am simply unable to make any sense of this trench, it is so busy. So will leave you with a lovely piece of Samian ware found whilst sieving in KG, well done Deborah and Nigel. So tomorrow many more people digging in KG and let’s pray for some evidence of our Roman building…… Peter
Wednesday 17th August We measured 20mm of rain this morning…hoorah! Great for my plants and great for digging, although a bit gloopy in places. Still better than hacking through rock! From the photos you can see we had overcast conditions which was far more pleasant than the recent heat and humidity. We had visits from Aylsham WI this morning and Buxton WI this afternoon. It was lovely to see you all and take you on a tour around the site. I hope you enjoyed the visit and when we see you next the talk we give will hopefully make a lot more sense.
So onto today’s dig. The kiln field was all about completing the grids and we do now have the first set fully dug. Nearly all the recording is done, and when finished tomorrow we can start on the remaining grids. Grid M has produced yet more Roman pottery and kiln fabric, and looks to be a termination of a ditch or drip gully. The associated grids will help to see how this feature relates to the surrounding area. I love the terminology ‘feature relationship’, but once you understand the relevance it all makes sense. As Martin said today, digging a grid with nothing in it is a story in itself. I know we all like to find things, but sometimes finding nothing is just as important. The Kitchen Garden where we have all the evidence of a Roman building but still cannot prove it was here, continues to throw up more questions than answers. As I have said before, we have a 7m x 10m trench that is all features accept about half a square metre! It is very difficult to see how anything relates to anything else, and hence the slow progress to try to define how dates and features relate to one another. It is quite possible that we will have to admit defeat on part of the trench, cover with membrane and return another year, after all we only have another 6 days digging. And each year I am worried that we won’t have enough for you all to do!! I have to say that Martin was not forthcoming about what he is expecting to find in this trench. We have a possible Roman floor surface, beneath which is a lot of burnt material. We are finding Roman pot and CBM across all features, and a section through the Roman floor where there was evidence of a recent intervention that revealed Victorian pottery. At some stage this section has been dug through around 150 years ago or thereabouts. There is much recording to be done in the morning and then the digging can continue, and perhaps just maybe we might possibly find the iron clad evidence that our building really exists!! Or maybe not! I am hopeful, Martin is being sensible! We were very lucky to have John Lord with us today, giving a wonderful display of flint knapping. Thank you John. Beryl Hines and her daughter Rosie were here talking about kilns and pottery. Wonderful to see you both, thank you. The Viking re-enactment group also attended, thank you to Peter and his friends for coming to see us again. I regret we cannot as yet show you any Viking finds, but we do have one late Saxon coin from King Althelstan II dating 878-890AD, found many years ago by a metal detectorist, in an adjoining field which is now a road! I hope there will be more discovered one day. Thank you to Julie Curl, who once again came on site to help with the bone finds and the animal footprints found on tiles. There is so much to learn from looking at these tiles giving us a wonderful insight to the fauna running around in Roman times. I love what these tiles tell us. Finally a thank you to Dr John Davies who was with us today. He identified the coin found by Jan in KG as a coin of Constans dating 347-348AD. This was found in the feature just to the right of the ramp. It came from the top of the feature and was in a sealed context. What this means will have to wait until I speak again with Martin tomorrow. John also had a quick look at coins found this year and back to 2018. We now have 17 coins all dated 347-353AD all found on the kiln field. A complete report on these will be made over the next few weeks and I will of course publish that here when we have received it. Thank you again to Dr john for your time today, very much appreciated. And for those of who don’t know, it was John Davies who helped me start this whole wonderful mad idea to have a community dig. Thank you so much. Whilst writing this, nephew Mark has been cutting a new exit staircase from KG, because the existing ramp cuts a feature which needs to be dug. He has just walked in with a massive piece of opus signinum (roman concrete) which he cut in half with the digger bucket! I am not quite sure how I will explain to Martin in the morning! Wish me luck. Thank you as always to everyone involved, are we getting closer…. Who knows!! Peter
Tuesday 16th August We had a drop of rain, and now as I write this there is thunder, lightning and some more rain, in fact heavy rain. Thank you to all who have been performing rain dances!
This morning was devoted to almost finishing the grids in the kiln field. Hard work in the rock hard soil, with few finds. However this is vital as we are digging a buried soil level and environmental samples from these grids will give a wonderful picture of flora and fauna of the time.
I have no idea where to begin in the Kitchen Garden. The north-south ditch sections were still being finished and the northern most is still a work in progress. Yet more Roman pottery and CBM and nails and large pieces of flint. My flint foundation is now very obviously tumble, not placed! But and a big but, where Ralph was digging we do have flints in situ, where they were placed whenever they were placed. I will say in Roman times, Martin will tell me we don’t know yet! Martin marked out nine 1 metre grids yesterday and digging has started. We appear to have a form of Roman foundation in the form of clay mixed with crushed CBM and pot. Through this layer there are a few holes. Why. So the diggers started, and the holes through the Roman level have post med and Victorian sherds of pot in them. At some stage trees have grown roots through or garden features have been dug through this layer, mixing the ancient with the modern. Martin is happy, he can now understand why these features have been cut. To the west of the trench where we believed there were few features, Martin decided to dig through what he be believed to be natural soil. After about a foot of digging he found more evidence of Roman era finds. This sand which looks so similar to the natural soil has in fact been imported over the last 2 to 3 hundred years to level up the garden for growing fruit trees in the Georgian era, or for the Victorian Garden. So we now have a 7×10 metre trench which is all archaeology! The chances of digging this correctly in the last seven days is unlikely. The professionals will make a judgement over the next few days. We can always back fill and dig again next year, as the features have not been disturbed. I will leave you with a comment from Martin whilst digging through the sand in the west of KG trench. He had dug through the sand then another 30cm through Roman soil and found a piece of pot. ‘Oh goodness me, a piece of Iron age pottery.’ Ok not exactly what he said, but I’ve adapted it for reading by the younger members!! One piece of Iron age pot means nothing, but of course my mind is now thinking early Britons living here before the Romans turned up. Thank you all for wonderful help today. I really think the garden will reveal something special this year, although I’m aware I’ve made this claim before! Please remember tomorrow we are hosting specialist’s day. We will have John Lord with us, the flint knapper. Please come and watch him turn a flint into beautiful tools. Specialists will be on hand to look at your finds and help you understand the art of archaeology. See you tomorrow. Peter
Monday 15th August Welcome to first day of week 2. Warm, humid but overcast. And amazingly half a dozen drops of rain…. But that was it. Let’s all pray for some more tomorrow. It would help with digging help the lake and help my poor plants as well.
So today we carried on in the kiln field, digging the grids. Grid M continued to reveal finds, retrieved from a feature which Martin believes is a ditch. The geophys did show up an anomaly, but was rather faint. The thing is we do have Roman finds coming out of a feature, and a huge amount from a small area. Roman pottery, huge unabraded sherds and lots of kiln fabric most with wonderful fingerprints. This grid will be continued tomorrow, and then we can in due course move onto the adjacent grid to fully understand this feature. Two other grids have revealed possible features which will be sectioned and dug tomorrow. The pit to the north-west was dug today. Quite a shallow feature but Roman pot retrieved. And two slots dug through the north-south ditch in the northern most part of the trench. On to the kitchen garden where I truly believed we had part of a flint foundation for a wall maybe. This was me clinging to the ‘we have a Roman building’ view!! Martin said this morning it’s a pile of flints, it tells us nothing until we have dug it. We did dig it and it was a pile of flints giving a very good impression of a foundation of a Roman wall. I humbly defer to the professional archaeologist!! But will continue to nag him occasionally! This is where my enthusiasm for evidence loses sight of the facts. I know I have said it before but the forensic nature of archaeology is an art form in itself. The ditch running north-south continues to reveal a lot of burnt material, and turns up plenty of finds. Pottery and CBM and pieces of lead. The north east section still has the huge cow jawbone stuck in it, because it sticks out of the section wall, and so must be left untouched. The feature near the ramp, to the north revealed a small Bronze Roman coin, we are awaiting an appraisal. Near the end of the day, Sheila was digging this feature, found what looks to be a posthole. Again more work required tomorrow. Martin was recording the features dug so far in KG so we can start tomorrow on the grids he has laid out over the central area of the trench. Perhaps tomorrow we will find evidence of something!! I can’t say the word, so ‘something’ will have to suffice. Thank you to everyone who is involved with this project. The fact that people can come together with a likeminded interest and enjoy a day with friends digging holes, sieving, cleaning and recording our history is to me what the ARP is all about. I truly thank you all for taking part. And finally thank you to Martin for leading us, you are doing an inspirational job, although I like to challenge you from time to time!!! Peter.
Friday 12th August The end of our first week, and a wonderful 5th day as well. Despite the increasing heat and dust, there were many brave souls who ventured out to dig the past. Thank you very much. Sheila and Diana were looking after their last group of children today some of whom stayed for the afternoon session. Perhaps they’ve caught the archaeology bug!! As always I have to water my plants so will try to be brief!!!
The Kiln field was all about digging the grids. One in particular, produced a few finds! I say a few finds, about 6 trays of finds. We just happen to have a feature in the south west corner of this 2m x 2m grid. Is it part of a ditch or a pit? The area all the finds came from was less than a square metre. We retrieved lots of kiln fabric and pieces of Roman pot, then as the digging went deeper, there were many lovely large pieces of pot all stacked one on top of the other. They were all unabraded, meaning the pot sherds have not moved since they were thrown in the ditch or pit about 1750 years ago. We are the first people to touch these wonderful bits of pot after all that time. This is why I love what we do. You can almost touch these people across the many hundreds of years.
On to the Kitchen Garden where we are searching almost in desperation for real evidence of a Roman building. Yes we have all the telltale signs of a building, roof tile, floor tile, hypocaust tile, pottery sherds, coins, opus signinum, painted wall plaster, lead pipe etc etc. Yes I know this sounds like many previous reports. The professional archaeologists simply do not work on hunches or possibilities, it’s all down to hard evidence. And I am trying to understand that view. We may have found all the pieces of evidence listed above, but they might have been brought here from somewhere else and then dumped here. So we need more in situ, undisturbed foundations, or walls or floors. I have a feeling we may by early next week get a better indication from Martin….. I Hope!! So today, for only two hours the ditch feature in the KG was being finished. Loads more pottery and CBM. Lots of burnt material as before. And then towards the end of the day a huge cow jaw bone in the north east corner of the trench. We have found animal bone in the northern part of this ditch in previous years. And the last thing to mention is a rather large amount of flints in one feature…… Could it really be…?? I dare not try to guess for fear of being castigated on Monday!!
It has been a wonderful day, with very brave diggers facing the extreme elements. Beautiful finds from both the kiln field and Kitchen Garden.
Thank you to all for being here today and all of this week revealing the history of Woodgate. I think we might really have a big story to tell before the three weeks are over. But knowing my luck……….!!! See you all on Monday, and thank you all again for a truly remarkable first week. Peter.
Thursday 11th August I’m not even going to mention heat etc….. just extreme!
First of all thank you to everyone who came today to discover the past. Another group of children were guided by Sheila and Diana to dig and sieve and were able to look at the finds we have discovered so far. Thank you to the two Mrs Ds for running the children’s area and giving a new generation of budding archaeologists an insight to field archaeology.
So to the dig today, and I really do have to be brief due to an evening on the hosepipe. The kiln field grids were being dug, perhaps more aggressively today to hopefully find the natural soil that means we know there will be no more archaeology. All grids were throwing up new finds, all Roman as you would expect, but one grid in particular was quite exciting. Grid M I believe, being dug by Kevin, which yesterday produced the kiln fabric and various sherds of pot, produced many more finds and then we realised there was a Roman feature in the grid. Kev had carefully revealed a beautiful rim of Roman pot, but had to stop digging because it was in a new context. Hopefully tomorrow we can see how much of this pot remains. Have to say it does look lovely, and my photo does not do it justice. But thank you to Kevin, great trowelling.
The kitchen garden is revealing more treasures. We have a ditch running north-south which is full of burnt material. Martin has now discovered that the burnt material entered the ditch from the western side, as he can see the profile of the slump. This is forensic archaeology at its best. Loads of finds are coming from this ditch, all of course Roman. Mostly CBM and pottery, then Olivia found a beautiful piece of lead pipe. These Romans had lead pipe in their house, or more probably their garden. The glass and lead items found in a sealed Roman context show that the remains of the building we are digging is really rather special. We know already that nearly all of it has been robbed out over the years following the withdrawal of the Roman influence. Any in situ CBM would be a dream, and we think we might have some. As previously reported we do have some tiles undisturbed, let’s hope this can possibly mean we can say we have a room, with a floor! It may not sound like much, but with the post roman destruction of our site, I would be very happy to be able to cling to any piece of evidence!! Off to water plants. Please can you all do a rain dance tonight! See you tomorrow and please take care in the heat. Peter.
Wednesday 10th August Hotter, drier and dustier! Sorry. Have to say it isn’t pleasant digging in these conditions, and so a big thank you for everyone who was brave enough to participate today. We had a home learning group with us doing some digging and sieving, hope you all had a good and happy experience.
Having rather a lot of watering to do, I must be brief this evening. So here goes!
Kiln field trench was all about digging the grids set out by Martin yesterday. Good progress was made with many finds, all Roman being retrieved. These grids will be the focus of attention each morning as we have a long way to go and although we are only on day 3, I feel the pressure mounting to get all twenty completed and the ditches in the north arm along with the pit still to be started. One grid in particular produced a lovely selection of kiln fabric and pottery. Dug by Karen and Chris, they revealed some lovely kiln fabric with finger marks and various sherds of pot, mostly all in one section of the grid. Someone dumped them there 1750 years ago and we are the first people to see them to touch them since that event. I know I get a bit romantic about this but I love the fact you can touch the finger marks made by the kiln builder all those years ago. This is really being in contact with those who went before us, and I have to say this is why I love archaeology.
The K garden is as I have said before is completely full of features, all blending in with each other. On the east side there is a feature that could possibly be a ditch running north-south, which itself is cut by other features. We are now digging sections through this ditch to try to understand how these features relate to each other. To the north we have, we believe the evidence of the ditch discovered in 2019 extending into this years trench, with the added feature of ….. well we don’t know until we dig it. Possibly a pit, but could actually be anything!! Going back to the north south ditch, it is full of burnt material. Burnt CBM, burnt pot, burnt nails and lumps of charcoal. We are retrieving many finds, CBM, pottery , quern stone, lots of Roman nails, Roman glass, and lead (meaning the element Pb). I really cannot wait to see how this trench unfolds… will we have proof of a Roman building this year? The sievers have really produced the goods today. Trays and trays of finds from the subsoil, covering many years of occupation. Lots of worked flint, iron age pot, heaps of Roman pot and CBM, med and post med pot and metal finds. The crowning sieve finds were a lovely piece of Samian pot from the K garden subsoil. And a huge almost intact Roman floor tile, measuring about 26cm across and down, and weighing 6.45KG. Have we a Roman building yet, Martin still won’t confirm. And I understand why, all these finds might have been dumped from somewhere else. But I’m going to be brave and say I really believe we have a substantial Roman building underneath the kitchen garden. Thank you all for your help today, we seem to have made huge progress in three days. Please sleep well and look forward to finding wonderful things tomorrow. Well that was brief! Peter
Tuesday 9th August Another hot dry and dusty day! Martin, Alice and Steve were leading us today in the two trenches. First job in kiln field was finishing the cleaning back, which was completed by lunchtime. Then Martin marked out 2 metre grid squares. Work began on this pm. Working on a chequer board pattern, the grids were gradually dug and as is the norm for the kiln field, lots of Roman pottery and CBM being found. We are digging through the buried soil level, so in effect digging the soil people were walking around on 1700 odd years ago. We should hit features as we go deeper, but there is a good 20-25cm of soil to remove before we really see them. I can imagine these grids taking another day or more to complete, depending on the quantity of finds and appearance of features. The kitchen garden began with completing the cleaning back. Martin and Steve then set to work to decide how to dig the numerous features which fill the trench. Basically trying to work out what cuts what, and dig sections to show relationship between the features. There is a lot of evidence of burning as we found back in 2019. Plenty of CBM being found and of course Roman pot, mostly grey ware. We also have an abundance of Roman nails, possible evidence of timber building. Sieving has again produced loads of finds. We are sieving the subsoil at the moment and we are discovering pot, CBM, clay pipe, glass, worked flint, metal objects etc etc. the list goes on, and the finds cross many centuries showing the occupation of the site has been almost constant for thousands of years. Dom was detecting the spoil heap on the kiln field and found a second coin of Emperor Magnentius 350-353AD, adding to our collection of wonderful Roman coins we have found over the last 6 years of ARP. The crowning moment for Martin was when a lovely piece of Iron Age pot came from sieving the kiln field. Pauline was cleaning it in the finds tent and realised it might be something special. On inspection by Martin it appears to be early to mid Iron age with a date range of 1000BC-500BC. I am sure we will get a tighter date range once the specialists have a look. We welcomed many new people today and I hope you all enjoyed discovering the history beneath your feet. I am sorry this is a rather short report this evening, but I have a lot of watering to do at the nursery. Look forward to seeing you tomorrow. Please Please be aware it’s getting hotter so think carefully about keeping hydrated.
Thank you all once again for taking part in ARP. Every day we seem to find another little clue to the past here at Woodgate. Peter.
Monday 8th August We’ve made it to our 5th proper community dig at Woodgate. Last year’s being a trial event after the lockdowns. So a huge thank you for everyone who has turned up today to help uncover the history beneath our feet. I must also say thank you to everyone who has helped to prepare the site. Preparations began September last year, and here we are with everything in place. A brilliant piece of logistics by everyone involved… thank you all. However we could not have foreseen the heat and the weeks of drought.
We have two trenches open, the first a large L shape to the north and west of the kilns in the kiln field. The second a 7m x 10m trench in the kitchen garden, due south and slightly west of where we dug in 2019, do we have a Roman Villa? All the evidence says we do, so let’s hope by the end of three weeks digging Martin and Dan can say ‘We have a villa at Woodgate’. But knowing how archaeologists work, please don’t hold your breath!
Under the watchful eyes of Alice and Steve from Britannia the task of the day was to clean back the excavated areas…. In the heat. Rather a dusty experience for all, despite valiant attempts to water the kiln field, which did help a bit. I dare not water the Kitchen Garden for fear of damaging the Roman concrete we have visible, but have been advised to give it a light sprinkle this evening to make the features clearer tomorrow. Have asked nephew Mark to get the hose out, he said he will. Thank you sir!
So what have we discovered so far? In the kiln field we have two ditches running north-south in the northern arm of the trench, along with what looks like a pit in the north-west corner. To the south of the north-south arm we have pits, post holes and possible ditches. Roman CBM and pottery clearly visible. Still some cleaning back required tomorrow, it has been slow work in the heat. The Kitchen Garden is a bit of a muddle! There seem to be features everywhere. Possible ditch, possible wall, pits, roman concrete, pottery and CBM. Sorry should explain that CBM means Ceramic Building Material, ie tiles, roof tiles, hypocaust tile etc. The big problem is that every feature seems to cut through another. A wonderful headache to have, which means very careful digging and analysis from the experts. The sieves have been in action today, and providing lots of finds. These are all from the subsoil. Pottery, CBM, clay pipe, glass, buttons, worked flint etc. There are many trays of finds already giving the finds tent ladies plenty to label and clean. It turns out the finds tent was the best place to be, in the shade with a gentle breeze, making life a little more bearable.
We have Aylsham Scouts providing the catering today, a big thank you for food and drink available at all times, much appreciated. Thank you Leanne. You may have noticed the film crew here as well ‘Old Beanz Productions’ who will film the whole three weeks to make a documentary about a community dig.
I have as always overstayed my welcome by rabbiting on endlessly. But have to say I’m so pleased we are back with a real community dig, and we had several people in today having a look and indeed taking part. Perfect. Thank you all and see you tomorrow. Peter
