Archaeological dig

[Dale]

I thought id do a quick thread to show a few photos I took today in Somerset, im lucky enough to be working on a dig 2 miles away from a well established a roman town, the area we are excavating is the farm land between two small settlements, it would of been used for cattle and growing crops, the field systems go back to Neolithic times then bronze age, iron age, roman, and medieval lol, its amazing to look at, there's field boundaries everywhere cut in to the ground, the area dug must be the size of 3 football pitches, I was told the land is so flat and perfect for farming it probably goes on for miles before I came to the site they removed a roman burial, its the photo with the dark soil (back fill) the shape was very odd, like a wine glass about 2m to about 500mm il ask why tomorrow.
The widest ditch shown in photo is the medieval one its about 3m wide I walked the length of it and managed a eyes only, a iron key I handed it in and told them I found it in the medieval ditch, they were very great full but told me its not a key I asked them what it was and one said I don't know but its not a key please correct me if im wrong
The next area should be a little more exciting, as its on the settlement itself  

[jtalbot0001]

That was an interesting read Dale. Look forward to reading more. I can't believe they say that is not a key becasue its got key written all over it in my opinion. Doesn't even need cleaning to reveal the teeth its that easy to see, well to me anyway.

[roaljodaka]

Interesting read Dale and also it's not a key WTF, sometimes you just wonder what they are thinking 

[anthonyjay]

Nice write-up and I agree with the others that is a key without doubt. I sometimes think these archaeologist live in a different world to the rest of us. ATB AJ

[stever]

interesting read mate

[hotmill]

I just think that some of them hate the thought that anyone else could possibly know anything about archaeology who is not an archaeologist.

[Val Beechey]

Your 2nd pic tells more than one story Dale.  If you look to the right, where the cars are, you can clearly see how much top soil has been removed.
It shouts out the fact that most of us wouldn't or couldn't possibly be disturbing or removed the Archaeological record. What it also shows makes you wonder how many 'finds' have been removed and dumped.

Val

[Dale]

Your 2nd pic tells more than one story Dale.  If you look to the right, where the cars are, you can clearly see how much top soil has been removed.
It shouts out the fact that most of us wouldn't or couldn't possibly be disturbing or removed the Archaeological record. What it also shows makes you wonder how many 'finds' have been removed and dumped.

Val

Cheers all, I stick with the key idea then

Well spotted Val, in places the dig was 800mm and there was still evidence of the field boundaries, some of them was dug right next to each other, there was 3 with in 2 meters of each other, so it tells you haw long the area was used.
The whole area shown was destroyed by modern plough, so the whole area was reduced to the clay all the plough soil was carted away by lorry, no items was recovered
all the ditches you see in the photos was cut in to the clay that's why there still visible, only 1 bit of roman pot was found and one coin in a shallow ditch, the rest went to land fill, all the archaeologists was interested in, was recording the field layouts
before it was lost, they did a pretty good job at that but its a shame what artefacts was lost.
I was chatting to Doug awhile back, he told me when the council cleaned the river/ditches out in the area they spread 1000s of roman coins over the farmers fields     

[Val Beechey]

Did you find out where it was dumped.?
   I found a nice babies silver name thingy in some stuff a local Farmer had dumped to build up an area.  Don't know where it came from but it looked like someone had cleared a tip. It was full of all sorts of rubbish.
I've got a very low area at the bottom of my field (used to be a lake) and often thought it would be a good idea to allow soil only land fill.  Trouble is, I believe you need a permit.  Just think, I could go and detect every fresh load that came in and earn a bob or two in the process.

Val