I have ended my weeks of digging in Area A under the tutelage of boss Andy and his assistant Beth. I started today helping over in Area B where I was for my first three weeks. The Area B crews has done quite a bit of work and have some great archaeology to show for their efforts. I helped out today with little stuff as Justin's time was taken up by a Chinese film crew doing a travel show about England and then later in the day overseeing the JCB take off the topsoil to make it a bit easier to get at the archaeology. The future crews digging in Area B won't know how lucky they are to not have to spend the first couple of days taking out useless turf and topsoil to get at the archaeology!
The pictures I have posted are of the northwestern stone wall of the first stone fort. The best idea is that the first stone fort was built in the decades of the 150's AD. Not much in the way of small finds turned up around the wall but who needs small finds when you find a four foot wide wall! And there is talk of consolidating the wall and leaving it open for visitors to see. Now that is legacy! No little trinket in the museum that you tell people you found. Instead everyone will see the wall and read the posted bit about it. That feels great!
Thanks to everyone who worked on the wall and a special thanks to everyone upcoming who will find the turn in the wall and get into the ditch that we just touched the surface of on Thursday.
1 comment:
Hi Matt,
Great pictures and enjoyed reading your blog.
What a great time I had working with you and the other diggers last week on the Antonine wall trench, I can't believe it's over a weak ago now.
Very exciting to uncover a section of wall not seen for 1800 years and I hope the "ditch" we found turns out to be as important as Andy thinks it may be. I'm looking forward to visiting later in the summer to see how things have progressed.
Anyway great to meet you and thanks for your help last week. Good luck in your efforts to find a job over here!
Regards,
Ian.
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