Wednesday 9th August

The photographs below show Area A, displaying a series of post-holes/pits and the remains of a wall (bottom left of pictures one and two) in which the lead bob was discovered last week:

These photographs show the post-holes, with the post-pipe and post-packing stone (probably displaced) clearly visible. The first picture (left) shows a small pit which may or may not be a post-hole:

The photographs of the following features are annotated. The final picture shows members trowelling Area A:

The Secret Life of Post Holes - diagram of a Roman post-hole

10th August, 2006

Wednesday 26th July

An exciting day, despite the usual draining hot and dry conditions. Stoicism won the day, though, with some encouraging finds, shown below:

At the top of the photos below, the area beginning to be exposed shows what would appear to be the remains of a wall foundation. To the right of this, the line of blue markers indicate iron finds which correspond to groups of nails as were found situated along the beamslot of last year’s dig, which lies approximately four metres to the left and along the same alignment. The emerging picture would indicate that we have three sides of a building.

The wonderful lead plumb bob was found where the red marker can just about be seen among the stones of the wall foundation. A Romano-British builder’s lost possession? Another theory is that it was part of a Groma which was a surveying tool used to keep the roads running straight. This theory is a little tempting since it was found so close to the Roman road: only a couple of feet away.

The red tile was found amongst the wall rubble and is clearly marked with an X. Again, it is tempting to think it was one of two Xs denoting the presence of the XXth legion. The XXth was based at Rocester and also at Chester.

Links:

The Groma: The Tool That Built An Empire - describes how the Groma was used

Roman Gromatici Practices

Reconstructed Groma in action

27th July, 2006