Another day spent in the trench with muscles just starting to feel normal again. I must admit to a bit of wonder how I managed at Bishopstone last year seeing as I toiled, ached, slept little in a little tent and managed to stay drunk for most of the nights. Maybe the alcohol is the clue here.
This morning Dawn was down for finds washing but, due to a quick word in the right ear, she managed to return to her trench, alongside Shirley, who, it seems, lives not far from us.
Ray’s samianware find
The biggest find of the dig so far was made by Ray today. A lovely (though admittedly small) piece of decorated samianware. Someone with a lot more knowledge than me (and a handy reference book) claims the trim dates to around 32AD. I later overheard one of the supervisors claiming the aisled hall was probably built around 200AD. As the samian was found just outside the wall of the hall, can we assume this was either a family heirloom accidentally broken or a lucky purchase from a Roman chariot boot sale?
Still, whatever the explanation (and I reckon some poor slave probably got a right telling off for breaking it) Ray was overjoyed and spent a lot of his time explaining to people where he’d found it and how lovely it was. During lunch it even spent a lot of time being passed around the circle of diggers. He was pleased as punch…and rightly so to!
At the dig is a flipchart. On a sheet of the flipchart, hung on a large easel, is a table containing all the digging dates. All days are full of volunteers but it has been decided that six extra people can be fitted in each day. Earlier in the week I managed to grab the sixth place on Saturday. I, naturally, offered it to Dawn but she assured me she could fit in a Thursday so I could have it. The next day she confessed that, in her excitement at such a wonderful dig, she had forgotten the school run which prevented her from digging during the week.
My muscles are now at peace with the rest of me so tonight I managed to do a little more than lay around like an invertebrate.
