Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
Follow the project on our YouTube channel
Attendees: Lindsey, Jean, Deborah, Chris, Tim L, Tony, Gary, Charlotte, Margaret and Keith
Another hot and sunny day at Wickham representing 1/3 of the way through this season of excavation at Wickham which ended a productive and enjoyable week on a high note. The star find of the day was a spindle whorl made out of a clipped/drilled sherd of medieval pottery found by Deborah in trench 2A as seen in Figure 1. This is the first indication of textile working on this site and offers clues to the local pastoral economy as well as the function/identity of some of the people who lived on this site – a nice find!
Elsewhere in trench 2A the planning and recording of the large flint deposit revealed earlier in the week was completed by Lindsey, Tim, Deborah and Chris who then proceeded to explore the newly revealed surfaces. At the south of this trench further large flints were discovered below the gravel deposits although they were much less densely packed that seen in the middle of trench 2A. At the north of the trench Tim started to explore a possible ditch/pit containing dark friable soils.
In trench 1A the morning was spent by Charlotte, Jean and Margaret completing the recording sondages opened across the lane joining Ermin Street in sections that were excavated earlier in the week. There are a number of small tasks still to be completed in this trench next week, but the focus of the excavation is likely to move to new areas of the site.
A 4m x 1m extension to the south of trench 2B was opened today by Gary and Tony with the objective of looking to see if the clay deposits seen at the south of trench 2B extended to the south and whether these clay deposits could be the extant surface of the Roman road. Due to the surface of the Roman road appearing to have been reused for a later phase of N-S aligned medieval occupation, it has not yet been possible to locate a ditch aligned with Ermin Street on the north side of the road. Excavations in trench 2A have suggested that the line of the Roman Road is to the south of where it is shown on the OS map based on the projections made by Magary. At the end of a long day of digging a surface of clay was revealed at the extreme south of the extension to trench 2B suggesting that the clay already seen to the north may form a contiguous deposit. This will need much further work next week to further to the south confirm the extent of this clay deposit and whether a road dich survives on the south facing side of the road…?
