David was kind enough to send me his photo of Annie with the leather hobnail shoe sole. So there you have it.
Today was the beginning of the new week and there are just four of us digging. One is brand new to the whole thing. Another was a professional digger for a couple of decades and the last has been coming to Vindolanda the last five years and has volunteered at sites nearer to his home. We had a good start as the expected rain held off the entire day. Not many finds again as we had to start in the units that had the topsoil removed last week since the trench still has water in the bottom. Hope to have decent weather the rest of the week and be able to get back into the ditches and post pits that are full of water right now.
4 comments:
A shoe!!! That is the coolest thing EVER! I am so impressed - I just can't believe a shoe has already been found! Last year when we dug there was so much rain and water we were not able to get to the deeper levels where items like this might possibly be found.
Here is an explanation of why it is possible to find organic material in such good condition at Vindolanda:
From the "20 most asked quesions" from www.vindolanda.com:
Why are the artefacts at Vindolanda found in such good condition?
A combination of factors aid the preservation and superb condition of the finds. The main aid is that the ground has anaerobic conditions, which means that there is no oxygen in the pre-Hadrianic excavation layers. Roman builders spread clay and turf over demolished buildings before starting new building programmes on a previously used site. This effectively capped the underlying layer preserving everything left beneath it. Artefacts like leather, wood, textiles, writing tablets and metal objects survive in near perfect condition. After conservation they are stabilized and ready for research and display. At the higher Vindolanda levels the conditions are not anaerobic. The organic finds do not survive at this level and metals are highly corroded due to the presence of oxygen and bacteria.
That's pretty freaking cool, Matt. And, Katie, thank you for the excellent factoid for those of us too lazy to look stuff like that up.
I hope the weather cooperates for you. I'm looking forward to hearing about the next cool find.
Hey Matt,
I LOVE the blog! What a great way to archive your adventures!
;) Becky
Very cool, Matt! The pictures are great and it's nice to have commentary from the "Man in the Mud".
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