Part of a series of bulletins from the BAS excavations at Wickham House
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Attendees: Zoe, Katharine, Peter C, Lindsey, James P, Sarah, Gordon, Merrill, Jill, Jackie, Vaughn, Judy and Keith
Over the weekend the finds discovered so far were washed (i.e. CBM, pottery and bone), dried and sorted by type/context bringing us up to date with this initial part of the assemblage post-ex analysis process. Some of the finds are shown drying in figure 1. However today brought a number of notable new finds as shown in Figure 2. The “LH” find (discovered by Gordon) is likely to be a 3rd-4th century AD flagon handle from comparison with other assemblages and the “Centre” find (discovered by Katharine) is a fragment of slip-ware platter probably also of a Late Roman date. The “RH” find (discovered by Lindsey) is the “star find” from today’s excavation which is a sprue from a lead casting, where molten lead was poured into a circular mould and for some reason was later discarded – but provides yet more evidence of metal working taking place on this site that from its discovery in context with the other finds shown can be dated to the Roman period.
Excavation today focused in Trench 2 where Lindsey, Katharine and Judy were levelling the context revealed underneath the N-S aligned deposit of large flints ready for planning and recording. At the other end of Trench 2 James, Merrill and Gordon were unpicking the layers of gravel where the northern edge of the Roman road and its associated road ditch are thought to be located.
In Trench 3 work continued to define the contexts discovered last week ahead of planning and recording by Jackie and Jill. A new trench was opened by Peter C, Zoe and Vaughn on top of a rectilinear roadside alignment of pits close to Trench 2A that is thought to be a possible further area of roadside occupation.
