Monday 30 June 2014

Binchester 2014: Day Sixteen

New week on site and we've been enjoyed by the US contingent- fresh from Texas and all points west (and north and quite possibly east as well). Great to see new keen faces and some familiar old ones. We've capitalised on this reservoir of enthusiasm by getting cracking with some important new tasks.

In Trench 1 we've started removing some of the central spine wall of the barrack- this will help us to start to get to grips with the surfaces that we can see either side of it, and which quite possibly run underneath it. We've also continued to work on the surfaces under the cobbled stable surface. The nicest find from within the barrack block came from the south end, where Bev found yet another small carnelian intaglio- this brings to three the number we've had from this area. Is this some kind of small scattered hoard of these objects?

In the north-east corner, a new crew started on the corner tower. They made great inroads moving the massive block of tumble that infills much of the interior - this will allow us to work down and clear down to the floor level which we've already exposed in other areas. Finally, in our rampart slot we've started going down revealing more courses  of internal wall facing stones, we've also got traces of a possible palisade slot which is exciting.

In Trench 2, there was no work in the main room and corridor. Instead, we got cracking with a major new plan, which is to expand the trench a little more to reveal just a smidgen more about the bath plan. In the building in front of the glass, we've started the process of dismantling the second, earlier phase and are able to get down into the surfaces that underlie it. At the west end we're continuing to follow along the new flagstone surface that appears to form a pavement in front of the bath-house.

Nice finds today include a worked bone mount and a cracking jet bead.







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