Tales of a volunteer excavator at Vindolanda Roman fort
Saturday, June 29, 2013
On site!
A quick post to show we made it to Vindolanda! Now wandering the fort before Vindolanda Friends evening. A shot of a hypocaust system in one of the rooms of the praetorium (commanding officer's residence):
Friday, June 28, 2013
Journey started
A humid, wet start to the trip, left the house at 4:45, now at Logan with very low cloud, and thick mist. No sign of threatened thunderstorms, so looks good for on time departure...
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Ditches and drains
The North Field trench has more than its fair share of drains and ditches this year. If I'm reading the analysis correctly, the curving one that starts in the middle of west side and ends in the northeast corner, and the straight one that catches the corner at the south side, are both definitely Roman. Not yet clear from here whether they are from the same period, but there's probably some hints already from pottery and possibly other finds.
There are also at least two annoying Victorian additions present, the straight, stone covered ditches that are probably 19th C in origin. They are not always deep enough to disturb Roman levels, although this year it looks like they are. You may be asking, why they are being left alone, rather than being removed to see what's underneath? The issue is that they are often still working, so if you break them you risk having your trench filled to the brim with water after each rainstorm; this is what happened to us last year. In trying to find the other edge of the ditch the baulk between the Victorian drain and the trench was trimmed down to about a foot, but this gave way one night during another of the many downpours last spring/summer, breaking the drain and producing the pool I blogged about on June 9th. Here's an image from last year's trench, Victorian drain in yellow, now-missing baulk outlined in black, (1st century?) double-ditch in blue, and a 3rd C later drain into the older ditch in red. The black pipe at the end of the Victorian drain was our attempt (90% successful) to reconnect the broken ends.
There are also at least two annoying Victorian additions present, the straight, stone covered ditches that are probably 19th C in origin. They are not always deep enough to disturb Roman levels, although this year it looks like they are. You may be asking, why they are being left alone, rather than being removed to see what's underneath? The issue is that they are often still working, so if you break them you risk having your trench filled to the brim with water after each rainstorm; this is what happened to us last year. In trying to find the other edge of the ditch the baulk between the Victorian drain and the trench was trimmed down to about a foot, but this gave way one night during another of the many downpours last spring/summer, breaking the drain and producing the pool I blogged about on June 9th. Here's an image from last year's trench, Victorian drain in yellow, now-missing baulk outlined in black, (1st century?) double-ditch in blue, and a 3rd C later drain into the older ditch in red. The black pipe at the end of the Victorian drain was our attempt (90% successful) to reconnect the broken ends.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Great onsite updates today
No sooner did I post yesterday about the sources of daily info, and two really good ones appear:
OK, I've decided, I want to be in the field again...
- The Official Excavation blog run by the Trust has an excellent video post (Week 12) describing in detail the latest news on progress in the fort trench.
- One of the students posted a really good summary of a day in the North Field, including his find of an intact Roman shoe, in an anaerobic deposit within a small pit.
OK, I've decided, I want to be in the field again...
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Sources for daily excavation updates for Vindolanda junkies
I'm planning to post at least once a day while I'm digging (July 1st to July 12th), but before/during/after that there are at least four other potential sources of daily info on the state of the Vindolanda excavations:
Daily tweets from Justin Blake, Deputy Director of Vindolanda Excavations, giving some official interpretation of the various trenches; these usually include a picture.
The Vindolanda Field School blog. Not necessarily every day, and includes their whole "summer in Northumberland" experience. Excavation updates are almost all from the North Field.
The official Vindolanda Trust Excavation Blog. Excellent weekly summary (usually posted on Friday) of the action by Justin Blake, occasional entries on other topics. Sometimes features video blogs that really make you feel like you are on a guided tour.
WeDigVindolanda Forum. Individual volunteers sometimes post reports and photos here. Also has an excellent historical overview of Vindolanda and description of typical finds. Need to join the forum to see everything.
Daily tweets from Justin Blake, Deputy Director of Vindolanda Excavations, giving some official interpretation of the various trenches; these usually include a picture.
The Vindolanda Field School blog. Not necessarily every day, and includes their whole "summer in Northumberland" experience. Excavation updates are almost all from the North Field.
The official Vindolanda Trust Excavation Blog. Excellent weekly summary (usually posted on Friday) of the action by Justin Blake, occasional entries on other topics. Sometimes features video blogs that really make you feel like you are on a guided tour.
WeDigVindolanda Forum. Individual volunteers sometimes post reports and photos here. Also has an excellent historical overview of Vindolanda and description of typical finds. Need to join the forum to see everything.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
2013 excavations so far
There are some detailed descriptions of the current excavations in the links I've included in the right side column, but it might be useful to try and summarize what's happening, to the extent that I can figure this out from 3,000 miles away. :-) I should emphasize that this summary is my own interpretation of information contained in the various blogs and tweets linked to the right.
There are two places being investigated this year, the southeast quadrant of the fort (yellow rectangle on image, right), and the North Field.
Fort, 2013
In only 10 weeks, more than half of the yellow rectangular area has been taken down about a foot, into the level of the last Roman/post-Roman occupation. Walls/floors from a variety of buildings have emerged, one of which was most likely housing soldiers at one point, another appears to have been domestic. In the late Roman period (and certainly post-Roman) the governing systems put in place by the Romans gradually broke down throughout Britain, and forts began to be used by locals in various non-military ways. So it wouldn't be surprising at all to find civilians living in the fort, even in the 4th century, before the Romans officially left Britain to its own devices in 410. These buildings likely date from the 4th and 5th century, built on top of and reusing stone from earlier forts that had not been properly maintained.
An annoying feature this year is a very large "robber trench", where all the building stone was taken, probably to build one of the nearby farmhouses in the 18th or 19th centuries (there are two just off the edge of the photo); fortunately the robbing seems to have stopped just above the early 3rd century fort level (built 213 AD). The robbers were only interested in the stone, so there were many small finds in this area, but their usefulness as dating material was limited because the soil was so disturbed. Many small finds of all kinds have emerged from the Fort, as usual, but not the leather and other "soft" finds that are preserved in the deeper, anaerobic layers that Vindolanda is famous for.
North Field, 2013
Excavations over the last five years or so have produced tantalizing evidence that the first fort at Vindolanda may have been in an adjacent field. Ditches and small finds dating from the pre-Hadrianic period (ie: late 1st C/early 2nd C) have been discovered; this is the area where I was digging in 2010 and 2012. It is hoped the trench this year will provide more clues as to what was in the field and when it first began to be used. A fort here would have been constructed of timber, so there is hope that some of the main structure may eventually be found, permitting an accurate date to be determined.
This year's trench hasn't revealed any timbers, but it has produced at least two distinct ditches, an area that looks to have been used as a hearth, and a pit of unknown function. One ditch has pottery dating from the latter part of the 2nd century, at a time when a fort on the main site had already been in use for decades (and by then had been rebuilt several times over). The vast majority of the excavation here has been done by students from the Vindolanda Field School (which is run by faculty from Western University, Ontario, click here for their excavation blog), but they are being joined by regular volunteers already so Sean and I could be digging alongside them. The Field School students will be leaving midway through our two weeks on site, but the two faculty (Beth Greene and Alex Meyer) will remain to continue the trench into August with a full crew of volunteers.
We don't know where we'll be assigned to dig until we arrive and I'm torn about which to hope for. Both previous times I've been in the North Field (with Beth Greene supervising in 2010 and 2012 and Alex Meyer in 2012), so it would be great to be posted there with them again, but there's so much happening in the fort as well...!
There are two places being investigated this year, the southeast quadrant of the fort (yellow rectangle on image, right), and the North Field.
Fort, 2013
In only 10 weeks, more than half of the yellow rectangular area has been taken down about a foot, into the level of the last Roman/post-Roman occupation. Walls/floors from a variety of buildings have emerged, one of which was most likely housing soldiers at one point, another appears to have been domestic. In the late Roman period (and certainly post-Roman) the governing systems put in place by the Romans gradually broke down throughout Britain, and forts began to be used by locals in various non-military ways. So it wouldn't be surprising at all to find civilians living in the fort, even in the 4th century, before the Romans officially left Britain to its own devices in 410. These buildings likely date from the 4th and 5th century, built on top of and reusing stone from earlier forts that had not been properly maintained.
An annoying feature this year is a very large "robber trench", where all the building stone was taken, probably to build one of the nearby farmhouses in the 18th or 19th centuries (there are two just off the edge of the photo); fortunately the robbing seems to have stopped just above the early 3rd century fort level (built 213 AD). The robbers were only interested in the stone, so there were many small finds in this area, but their usefulness as dating material was limited because the soil was so disturbed. Many small finds of all kinds have emerged from the Fort, as usual, but not the leather and other "soft" finds that are preserved in the deeper, anaerobic layers that Vindolanda is famous for.
North Field, 2013
Excavations over the last five years or so have produced tantalizing evidence that the first fort at Vindolanda may have been in an adjacent field. Ditches and small finds dating from the pre-Hadrianic period (ie: late 1st C/early 2nd C) have been discovered; this is the area where I was digging in 2010 and 2012. It is hoped the trench this year will provide more clues as to what was in the field and when it first began to be used. A fort here would have been constructed of timber, so there is hope that some of the main structure may eventually be found, permitting an accurate date to be determined.
This year's trench hasn't revealed any timbers, but it has produced at least two distinct ditches, an area that looks to have been used as a hearth, and a pit of unknown function. One ditch has pottery dating from the latter part of the 2nd century, at a time when a fort on the main site had already been in use for decades (and by then had been rebuilt several times over). The vast majority of the excavation here has been done by students from the Vindolanda Field School (which is run by faculty from Western University, Ontario, click here for their excavation blog), but they are being joined by regular volunteers already so Sean and I could be digging alongside them. The Field School students will be leaving midway through our two weeks on site, but the two faculty (Beth Greene and Alex Meyer) will remain to continue the trench into August with a full crew of volunteers.
We don't know where we'll be assigned to dig until we arrive and I'm torn about which to hope for. Both previous times I've been in the North Field (with Beth Greene supervising in 2010 and 2012 and Alex Meyer in 2012), so it would be great to be posted there with them again, but there's so much happening in the fort as well...!
Testing video posts
Ten days to go before we leave, and just wanted to go through the process of posting a video. Here's a 14 second clip taken with my iPhone, in the back garden yesterday evening; if you listen carefully you can hear a few "chips" from the hummingbird, a brief bit of the high speed wing beats, and all of this behind the loud song of our nesting catbird:
This is "HD" quality, but still looks a little grainy IMHO. 4MB file.
This is "HD" quality, but still looks a little grainy IMHO. 4MB file.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
New blog "skin" finished
Having decided to revitalize the blog for another digging season, it struck me that the blog could use a facelift. Over the past couple of days I've been tweaking it, finally digging a little bit deeper into the different available Blogger themes and discovering there is some fairly easy customization possible. Now I'm satisfied with it, so if there is actually anybody out there but me reading this, they could even comment on how it looks... 8-)
The header image is actually a section of Hadrian's Wall near Steel Rigg, sliced from a shot I took in 2010. You could even go so far as to say this is another milestone in the blog. But no, that would be too corny.
The header image is actually a section of Hadrian's Wall near Steel Rigg, sliced from a shot I took in 2010. You could even go so far as to say this is another milestone in the blog. But no, that would be too corny.
Monday, June 10, 2013
Testing mobile apps for Blogger
As the trip nears I realize I need to test out some mobile blogging apps, so I can post quickly from the trench. BlogGo ($1.99) has more bells and whistles, more ways to change fonts and image sizes can be selected more easily. But, on an iPhone 4s the typing space is TINY. Blogger (free) is less customizable, but for basic blogging looks to be the one for me. I think the BlogGo interface could be modified to free up more space for typing and relegate the additional options to a popup; as it is now it becomes extremely difficult to edit once you have both text and an image present in your post. Because most people are by now using an iPhone 5 with a taller screen, it may be that the developer won't be interested in fixing this, but I think it could do with some cleaning up all the same...
Here's a screenshot of Blogger:
Followed by the much more cluttered look of BlogGo:
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Flying Archaeologist
As noted below, an episode of "The Flying Archaeologist" was focused on Vindolanda, and they were around for filming during the week I was digging. A separate news story describing the main ideas in the episode ended up on the BBC website: BBC story on Vindolanda and yours truly is in the second image of the four shown within the story. Fame at last. The programme was shown in the UK in April 2013; there's a 3 minute clip from it on the page linked to above.
Postscript for 2012's dig...
I guess the blog was a bust last year. Sorry. Had a great week, only lost one day of the five to rain, despite 2012 being one of the wettest on record in the UK. We defined a ditch that probably ran along the outer perimeter of one of the earliest forts at Vindolanda. However, because the very wet conditions meant we were all covered in thick mud the whole day, I took very few pictures. Here's evidence of how wet it was, showing the crew first thing on day 4, looking at thousands of gallons of rain in our trench from an overnight storm, believe it or not we were digging an hour after this picture was taken:
And here's a shot of the dry trench the day before, with the ditch in view running through the middle of the shot, right to left at a slight diagonal (a marker post is lying along the bottom of one side of the ditch):
And here's a view I took of the entire site from Barcombe Hill (Hadrian's Wall is on the ridge in the background, at right), on our day lost to rain, with our trench visible in the north field towards the centre right of the image:
We were visited by a BBC film crew during the week (see link to a news story about it), filming an episode of the series "The Flying Archaeologist". It turned out they showed a nice find of mine from that day, a small piece of armour:
And here's a shot of the dry trench the day before, with the ditch in view running through the middle of the shot, right to left at a slight diagonal (a marker post is lying along the bottom of one side of the ditch):
And here's a view I took of the entire site from Barcombe Hill (Hadrian's Wall is on the ridge in the background, at right), on our day lost to rain, with our trench visible in the north field towards the centre right of the image:
We were visited by a BBC film crew during the week (see link to a news story about it), filming an episode of the series "The Flying Archaeologist". It turned out they showed a nice find of mine from that day, a small piece of armour:
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