Binchester 2015: Day 29

After yesterdays soggy times, today was much more pleasant. We had lots of visitors- we welcomed Iain Ferris, who led the major campaign of excavations on the praetorium and its bath-house. He had lots of useful insights which were extremely helpful We then saw Lindsay Allason-Jones, who had time to record some our sculptured stone fragments. We were also visited by Marc from Archaeosoup with whom we hope to do some filming next week.

In Trench 1, the burnt areas are getting more extensive and we are  still particularly flummoxed by the large spread of burnt sandstone and clay which appears much more substantial than any oven we have seen so far. It is clearly earlier than the barrack  but its function is still opaque. Some nice finds, including the second bone dice of the week.

In Trench 2, we were are in the final stages of tidying up and recording the bath-house interior. In the area outside to the west, we can really see how the flagstones are edged by a nicely defined kerb, with a more scrappy area to the east- although there is still an intriguing and difficult to understand stone setting. To the south of the bath-house - lots of recording but also more work on the metal working area which has produced a beautiful crucible lid seemingly with some wood or a similar fibrous material embedded in it. In general, we have continued our splendid run of nice finds - two fine spoons (one bone with a pierced bowl and one copper alloy with possible silver surfaces in places) and a wonderful little lead phallic pendant from Mary.