AN OCCASIONAL PROGRESS REPORT
of the 2008 Excavation
by Jeremy Cooper

The views expressed are Jeremy's own and the information is his own understanding - he has been known to get things wrong!

Interesting that Midsummer's Day is 3 or 4 days after the Summer solstice just as Christmas is 3 or 4 days after the Winter solstice - I suppose the ancients needed a couple of days of observations to be sure that sun really had passed the turning point. I expect there's different conventional wisdom about this - I'll look it up. Anyway...

Not much to report today. Several more returnees turned up for the first time - good to see you back!

Work on the baulk in bath house 1 provided a very nice section for me to photograph.

Lots going on there!

Down in the lower slope the position of another South-North drain was further defined - you can see it as the dark streek running top to bottom across this trench...

with clay either side of it. It continues in the next trench along...

This rather fine mortarium rim came through the finds process.

It was found in bath house 2.

Here's an overview of the site, looking (more or less) North.

It's a bit small to see properly, so click on it for a larger, legible version in a new browser window: make the window larger to see the image larger.

A bit brief today - I need to go on-line to find a replacement for the Media Centre tent which collapsed in the wind over thge weekend with broken joints and ripped covering - it ws not really designed for such extreme conditions. But then neither were quite a few trees. Sic Transit Gloria.

Note the black and perfectly perforated drainage pipe

This was undoubtedly an Ollie day (sorry for the pun - it slipped out when I wasn't paying attention).

James Oliver, Northants Estate Maintenance, 07961 577367:
delicate topsoil clearance and infilling

Ollie dug (and filled in again) three pits, to trace the drain pipe that runs from the bottom of bath house 1.

He found it.

He also dug (and infilled) a long trench along the bottom of the site to help with drainage.

In the process he found a pebble layer corresponding to the ones already excavated nearby and to those found in the 2006 test pits in that area.

Ollie also took the top off the area adjacent to the current excavation to give everyone a running start at extending the area. He didn't put that back.

Everyone had to come off the digging while Ollie was working behind their positions. With the diggers transferred to the finds area for much of the afternoon, the backlog in finds processing was quickly cleared.

All for now - I'm off to celebrate Midsummer's Day.

The view from on high

Very windy on site today! Also the added interest of the poisoned water in West Northants.

Quite short today - three finds:

An iron tool of some sort - a knife, chisel or... When it's been conserved we'll have a much better idea.

Obviously, this worked stone has been sliced into with a sharp blade of some sort. But why? Was it to sharpen the blade? Was it to make a nice pattern? Was it to make a gaming board? Your ideas are welcome, especially if you've come across somehting like this before at a Roman site: nick@whitehallvilla.co.uk

And finally, what seems to be a sandwich with a marble layer inside. If it's man-made, it was a piece of very fine craft. Thoughts about this one?

Tomorrow we'll have special guests on site for the day - two prize winners in a competition related to Ruth's latest novel. More tomorrow.

Margaret took over from Barbara for the day

Fred with the West wall at his feet

Less windy and a bit cooler overall. We'll cut straight to the chase...

End of week site tour

Barbara told us about developments in her area.

This is an overview of the South end of bath house two.

The West wall is definitely the West wall, if you get my meaning. You can see it clearly on both sides of the baulk - which will be taken out soon, over the wall at least.

The pilae are misbehaving: there is a rebel rank of them striking out from the dull conformity of the grid (maybe they're from Milton Keynes). No sensible explanations yet. It looks likely that there are still lots of pilae to find as the dig extends eastwards, but the predictive algorithms are now looking less dependable.

The East wall is looking as though it might be here.

This is the channel from the possible stoke house to the hypocaust system of bath house 2 - it's been brilliantly cleaned by Rick.

Tony showed us the cleared drainage ditch. The bricks found in it are definitely pre-1784 (when standard bricks sizes changes). So "Post-Mediaeval" is still quite approptate.

Further up, the excavation of the paved courtyard area has been widened to East and to West to reveal a whole load of fascinating features, especially at the West end.

The sequence of surfaces is now very apparent.

There are these walls emerging too. Steve says it's a porch for the bath house door. Tony prefers "veranda".

The stones marked on the photo above are exactly like the ones used to line the post mediaeval drainage ditch. The one in the foreground is still in situ at a Roman level.

The bath house is now looking wonderfully clean (seems appropriate!) and the detailed analysis continues.

And finally...

The Friday afternoon wheelbarrow handicap shows Fred clearly in the lead at the first corner.

Next - week 3 (already!)

Ad hoc drainage to try to keep the bath house dry - you know how it is when the kids let the bath overflow...

A very finely cast piece of concrete, from the vaulting of bath house two - a feature only found in bath houses!

All dressed up (for the weekend) and nowhere to go...