AN OCCASIONAL PROGRESS REPORT
of the 2009 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!

Day 16 of 20: Monday 6 July

Monsoon season has begun.

This is how the site looked when I arrived just after lunch. Much of the morning had been spent bailing out!

An hour or so later it had rained (to say the least) again...

No great damage done though.

Here's a ring dug up last year...

These photos are being sent off to an expert for identification.

Our own pot jigsaw expert, Jane has been busy...

We now have quite a substantial part of this barbotine pot (decorated Nene Valley colour-coated fineware).

And this greyware bowl is a beauty.

Watching the water running away (or not!) is endlessly fascinating. Note the brave smiles.

Higher up on the site, it's weeding time.

Might make nice salad for the campers. As Tony said, it's easier to pick them while the soil is wet. He's hoping the ground will be baking hard again before the weekend. Mmm.

Just before closing time, Fred found a nice piece of painted plaster in the drain running diagonally across the herd of pilae.

A little way away from where the painted plaster has been coming up before.

But that corner is where the action was at close of play...

The search for the join had proceeded downwards to the right level...

The three black dots show three foundation stones at the junction between the W and S walls. A few moments later another was confirmed under the soil layer at top left. The stones match pretty well the foundations found under the W wall - it's clear that they extend under the S wall.

Tomorrow's weather forecast is for much the same as today.

A stone circle in BH2 - mini-druids?

Day 17 of 20: Tuesday 7 July

Much as yesterday. A short (and early) blog.

Rain finally stopped play at about 2.45 when walking anywhere on site would have damaged the archaeology.

This is the bottom of The Trench (a drain, remember!) Jake, in the foreground wielding his trowel, was carefully excavating a new channel to help the water drain into the relatively modern drain running E-W across the lower slope.

Jake has taken on the management of the drainage system: he obviously has an affinity to water as he was responsible earlier in the dig for making sure the diggers drank enough water during the heatwave.

He also engaged in some experimental archaeolgoy today...

This is his authentic stone and wood causeway designed to stop people sliding off the slope into BH2.

I think this is more experimental archaeology - perhaps a structure designed to repel rainclouds.

The day ended very early with some preparations for Open Day.

This is the building of a replica of the Antonine Wall (well, Tony was in charge) designed to repel invaders from the East.

Finally, Ian Luck and Pip Lowe paid us their annual visit.

Good to see you again, and thanks for your help.

Tomorrow may be a bit like today. Then it may get a bit better, especially on Friday - but at the moment Sunday is looking very damp for Open Day .

Heigh ho!

The rain stayed off all day! But last night's rain it left some presents. It brought out very clearly a couple of cuts in the west baulk of BH1 room2 (Dave and Tony were looking for them anyway).

The dark soil of the cut in the baulk here lines up a cut found earlier to the east of the praefurnium (where the little measuring rod is standing).

The rain also inspired Jake and team to take steps - well, to make them actually, again using only authentic Roman construciton methods. These steps protect the rest of the south baulk of BH2 from being worn away by diggers entering and leaving the area (however carefully).

And this is the area they were working on. They are working down the area to see what the surfaces can tell us. My mini-druid ring has gone! What a cheek! But they found a whole tray's worth of painted plaster today, showing a clear red and white pattern. Apologies for not photographing it!

Meanwhile, over on the charcoaly area east of BH1 they are drain-hunting.

Finally, Fred et al have found some pretty massive masonry at the west end of the Georgian farm house out-buiding trench.

The dig will really start winding down tomorrow. There will be lots of cleaning up of archaeology, planning and photography to do, together with more preparations for Open Day on Sunday - have I mentioned Open Day Sunday before? Hope you can come along.

Day 20 of 20: Friday 10 July

A day of more Open Day preps, immaculate surface cleaning, a ride in the Matbro cage (for me and Steve)...

Thanks for the photo Malcolm.

... and a final site tour where all those tantalising questions were... well, not exaxctly answered, but carried forward to next year when, of course they will be.

To begin with, more evidence of the high quality of life in BH2.

That's even more painted plaster on the left and some quite small (equals intricate design) tesserae.

Now for a very rare sight - a farmer's son mowing a field.

This is, of course, the special grass sown to show where the villa itself stood and it only ever gets mown with a hand mower. I saw Nick doing it himself last year, but I didn't have my camera with me.

After lunch we took the annual group photo.

Click on the photo for a bigger version.

Jake has been at it again (what an industrious lad - always has been!)...

A superb demonstration of how to splice two nylon lines together. I suspect the Navy may want him in the rigging rather than the galley!

Steve modelled the 2009 t-shirt. The Latin means...

"Live well in pleasant surroundings". Insect life can make surroundings more pleasant, sometimes...

This gang of (someone please tell me*) moths (?) had found a dark (warm) and wet bit of the vegetation over the sump N of BH1.

*Maggie emails: "The so-called moths on yesterday's blog are almost certainly Green Veined White BUTTERFLIES". My apologies to butterflies everywhere. But let's not knock the moths.

*Fred said on Open Day that they are cabbage white butterflies - he reckons green veined whites are a bit rare hereabouts. Well, Fred, so are HUGE bath houses.

*Maggie replies: "They are not so-called 'cabbage white' (Small White or Large White) as they have different underwing marking from those pictured. Green Veined White were on the site, I saw several." DISCUSSION CLOSED (Editor)

Final Site Tour

There was a big thanks from Steve, Barbara and Tony to everyone for all their work and enthusiasm.

Barbara kicked off by outlining the layout of BH2 as far as it has now been revealed.

See below for a diagram.

Steve told us:

1. that BH2 is, in terms of the hypocaust alone, 4 times bigger than BH1 and bigger than the bath house at, for example, Chedworth villa (a very up market establishment): it was also built to a much higher spec than BH1 - better materials, construction and decoration.

2. that we have uncovered only half of BH2 - the other half must have been there to complete the standard suite of rooms. Where are they? To the East most probably, down the hill towards the canal. Just possibly to the South, under the spoil heap! Next year...

3. that BH2 dates from the mid to late 3rd century AD into the 4th century AD, while BH1 dates from the 4th century into the 5th. They did not coexist, except, perhaps, for a small portion of BH1 nearest to BH2 (we'll look for more evidence in this area next year);

4. that there must be a good reason why BH2 is so much bigger than BH1. It might be a change in bathing habits (unlikely); or it might be a change in the use of the landscape thereabouts. Room 3B in BH1 yielded (among many other things) the largest deposit of hare bones in the UK (we think); perhaps (just perhaps mind) this was a hare hunting lodge where visiting parties would need a bath after a long chase. When the hunt trade moved on, and/or when BH2 finally surrendered to the invasive flooding from the spring, BH1 was built for domestic use only, almost certainly using stones from BH2. And, of course, hares had sacred qualities too, so maybe this was a ritual site... Maybe. Perhaps.

(My unauthorised thought - we've always wondered why BH1 was so big: maybe it's just the the folk who lived on the hill had been spoilt by BH2 and didn't want to downsize too far).

Tony showed us the wallish feature (see yesterday) in the charcoaly area E of BH1 - this will be further investigated next year in looking at the area linking (or not) BH1 and BH2.

Steve then explained the (latest thinking on) the complex phasing of BH1. To put it simply (and possibly wrongly) room 4 at the bottom end was the earliest. Then there followed the other rooms going up the hill and the stoke house. Then the stoke house and hypocaust were rebuilt a couple of times, and so were the other upper rooms. Then room 5 was added over room 4 at the bottom. I think. Best await Steve's report for an acurate account.

And now, here's just one of the several score photos I took from on high. Next week I'll stitch some pix together to provide a high resolution image of the whole of BH2. I'll put that on this site. Meanwhile:

Click on the photo for a larger image, with annotations.

Well, the barbecue has just begun.

Thanks for the photo Ruth

We're not there - the wife and I - as we both are knackered and still have work to do for Sunday - that's Open Day by the way. Hope to see you there. I'll be keeping an eye on the video screenings, and, believe it or not, taking photos.

Be happy.

Jeremy.


A completely authentic photo! - thanks to Chris W

Post Scriptum (that's Latin you know). Open Day photos are here.

Thanks Malcolm - very arty!