Update on Rainy Dig Week

The last week of my digging was too waterlogged to go much more in depth than what Katie and I did on the first day of the dig week. The rain was such that we only got one other day in for digging. We removed topsoil on a different area because the original bit we were excavating was too soggy and muddy to do any archaeology. So we found some bits of pottery and shoveled some dirt. One of the days was a complete washout. The other two days we stayed and helped wash pottery found earlier in the season and mark it ready to be taken down to the lab. A few samian stamps were discovered as was a bit of amphorae that had a painted decoration on part. The pictures I think say it all.








Katie and I did go to Tullie House Museum in nearby Carlisle on one of the days we were not able to dig. The museum has a collection of Roman material but also displays on the geology and nature of the north west of England and a display on the Border Reivers of the 1300-1600's. We also went for a walk in the drizzly rain and saw the last bit of standing remains of Hadrian's Wall. The walk takes you over the River Irthing on a very well done foot bridge built in 1999. Before that you had to back track and walk extra couple of miles to pick up the Wall walk again. The next two pictures show part of the Roman bridge that would have crossed the River Irthing with a road on the top. Katie is standing next to what is left of the east bridge abutment. The west abutment is under grazing land as the river has moved further west cutting into the cliff that the Wall would have come down. The last picture is taken from the top of the cliff mentioned above and looks east over the flood plain and the Wall as it comes down to meet the east bridge abutment.