Installing the exhibition!

As seen on the Facebook page for the Ravenglass Railway Museum: this is project stalwart Leo starting to fill up the exhibition cabinet with lots of Romans in Ravenglass finds. 

The exhibition will open on 15th February, with lots to see, including the cabinet, exhibition boards and videos.

Ravenglass 2017 - 17 Pot washing

Due to being a rather busy, Kurt and Sandra have only just got round to doing a bit of pot washing for the Ravenglass dig of 2017!

 Dirty finds!

Washing finds with a toothbrush

 Laid out to dry in trays - each tray contains finds from an individual context

He's found (and washed) a sherd of Samian ...

It's a base sherd of Samian with rilling as decoration ...

 

And the other side shows a foot ring.  The sherd is from either a bowl or shallow dish

 

So far, as well as Samian (2nd century), there's probable Muncaster Ware (typically friable when being washed), storage jar/amphora and fragments of Roman brick and tile. There's also some post medieval sherds, possibly from Staffordshire.

 

We'll need to wait until the pottery is dry, then we can mark it, count the number of sherds per context, bag it up, then weigh it by context. After that we will then ask a pottery expert to quote a price for writing up a report for us!   Sandra will do the brick and tile report.  Any small finds (eg. metals, glass, etc.) will need to be assessed to see if they need conservation and/or a specialist to look at them.

 

Day five - the final countdown ...

The final day on site had fine weather again. Remarkably, almost the entire week on site was dry, so we were lucky.

Test Pit 1 appears to have clipped a clay-line oven or kiln, with ash and charcoal layers suggestive of rakings-ou from the structure.

Test Pit 2 had a thick layer of ash found to over-lie the original Roman ground surface.

 TP5 - road surfaces overlying the base of the road

In Test Pit 5 a third layer of cobbles and pebbles prove to rest on a layer of boulders, apparently the base of a well-built road - presumably the main road north from the fort.  Probing indicated that the road was some 10 metres wide.

 Doug excavating the road base in TP5

In Test Pit 7, a post-hole and small ditch or beam-slot was cut into a layer of burnt clay.

From left to right: Doug, Steve, Bryan, Brian, Len, and Kurt at the Cafe

The trenches were then backfilled after tea and cake at the The Turntable Cafe at the La'al Ratty.

Alan, Len and Brian backfilling

 
That's the last day of digging news. Watch out for more posts about this season's campaign, including reports about the site finds, the Beach Walking finds, and Kurt's conclusions about the Test Pit excavations!

Day Four - Nearly t-shirt weather!

Remarkably fine (almost t-shirt) weather today!

In TP1, Alan found a clay wall associated with ash and charcoal layers (raking out?).  Len found further ashy layers in TP2. 

Ashy, stony surface in TP2

Closer to the fort, Doug was down to his third layer of cobble surface in TP5. This is looking increasingly the Roman road running north from the fort.

 Another cobble surfce in TP5

In TPs 6 (Bryan) and 7 (Anita & Steve), layers of burnt clay indicate yet more industrial activity.

We're very grateful to Debbie for the donuts which finished demolishing today!

Meanwhile, the finds team (Brian and Sandra) have finally finished sorting out the beach walking finds, which are now ready for sending off to the specialists when we can afford it. It was satisfying to see all the boxes lined up!

Day Three - Come on Aileen?

We were remarkably free from rain after missing Storm Aileen, but some of the trenches were flooded.

 Clay ?flue (right in section), ash & charcoal (left in section)

In TP1 there is a possible clay wall with layers of ash and charcoal alongside the flue of a furnace.

TP2 has more stony, ashy deposits

Doug cleaning the cobble surface in TP5

TP5 was opened and immediately a cobble surface was uncovered - could this be the main road north from the fort to Hadrian's Wall?

 

Hungry heron at the 4pm feed

The finds team, sadly missing Leo for the moment, continued to sort through the twenty boxes at Muncaster Castle.  Despite being distracted by the Bird Displays, Brian and Sandra managed to get through the bulk of the finds boxes today.  Tomorrow the last few objects will be listed. But how many herons will turn up at tomorrow's 4pm feed?

Day Two - Steady progress

The weather continues to hold, and it looks like we've got Roman archaeology.

A cobble surface in TP1

 

 There is a stony, ashy surface in TP2 - Len sieving

Doug digging in TP3 

And there's a culvert in TP4

The finds team (Brian and Sandra) have re-located to a room in Muncaster Castle to prepare twenty boxes of beach walking finds for sending off to specialists. Everything needs sorting into categories (pottery, brick & tile, etc.) and bagged up.

Brian on the steps to the temporary finds room

 Some of the twenty boxes to process

Some eight boxes were sorted by the end of the day - how many can Brian and Sandra do tomorrow?