WHAT A ROOM. Plaster on the walls, soil kept on to protect it till we’ve emptied it out completely, red painted lumps of plaster in the debris. Massive amount of pot, last week half a figured Samian vessel decorated with acanthus leaves and a hippocamp – a kind of sea monster, half horse half fish – not quite a dragon , but hey I’m easily impressed. This was Kat’s star find and we are currently looking for the other half of what Kat calls her “My Little Pony” pot. Bless her. 
Last week, in this room Kat and Neil found what was the remains of roman footware, probably a sandal. All the leather was gone but the hobnails remained and traced out the shape of the sole. This week building nails seem to be the order of the day. Today out of 34 small finds (that does not include pot, tile, plaster etc) 29 have been nails. It makes for boring reading on the small finds bags.
Site Code – 3641 2004 Site Name – Groundwell SSD- Trench 6 Context Number – 5021 SF Number – 7808 Material – Fe
Object – Another $%&&*! Nail
Still, why are we complaining this is a rich room indeed. Apart from the nails, two trays of various pot, I’d say about 30 significantly large pieces just today. And testament to my mattocking technique — my star find of today was a very fine piece of roman glass, the rim of a delicate vessel, about 3cm x 1cm, mattocked out by my own fair hands with no further breakage. Although praised for the find and delicate mattock work I think they were being over generous — more luck than judgement I’d say, but I did feel good. Roman glass. 
A great first day, excellent finds and the whole site seems to be coming together although still very hard to interpret. Close up photos taken
Designed by Corinne Mills 2005
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