Report: Focus on the Finds Hut

Whilst the diggers worked hard excavating trenches, the finds team grappled with the mass outbreak of slag this season, as well as the other various categories of finds.  The slag all needed to be dried out, weighed and bagged up.  Leo was instrumental in getting this done:

Leo weighs lots and lots of slag ...

Meanwhile, Rosalie and Janice worked on sorting out the trays (and sometimes buckets!) from the previous day.

 Janice and Rosalie sorting the slag before its laid out to dry

In between all that, they would supervise the washing of the bulk finds.

Rosalie and finds washers sheltering from the sun!

 
When they'd finished the initial sorting, they moved onto small finding items.  This involved giving small finded items a unique number and taking appropriate measurements. The finds would then need to be packaged and stored.

The Small Finds book

This year, due to the pottery actually drying, we even did a little bit of pottery marking!  This involves painting the pottery sherds with a line of Paraloid B-72, which is a clear acrylic resin. When it's dry, we can then mark the pottery with its context number in permanent ink. When that's dry, we then paint another layer of Paraloid B-72 over it. 

Janice marking the pottery - small, clear and neat handwriting is mandatory for marking!

When the finds are fully processed they can then be boxed up ready for removal from site. We stopped washing finds on the last Saturday, so we could concentrate on bagging up as much as possible.

On the last couple of days, whilst the trenches were being backfilled, Brian K finished up the packing of the finds and the finds hut due to the absence of Finds Officer - she is very grateful for him being able to step in and take charge at the very last moment.

The finds are now resident in York for the moment waiting for the processing to be fully completed and then they'll be dispersed to the various specialists.  The clear boxes are for small finds, and the other white tubs are normally (for Ravenglass at least) the slag.

The Ravenglass small finds - and some slag

More finds boxes awaiting their fate, along with some ... more slag!

My next blog will focus on some of the finds highlights from this year's season.


Sandra Garside-Neville, Finds Officer, Romans in Ravenglass

Comment: The end of the digging season, but ...

And sheep shall safely graze

Now the sheep can roam the fields unhindered by archaeology trenches. The last digging season has finished, but there's plenty to come yet! Look out for Director Kurt's final week's digging report and Finds Officer Sandra's focus on artefacts in the next few weeks, and much, much more in the coming months.

Sandra

Finds Officer, Romans in Ravenglass

Report: Fun in the sun!

Finally, we have found a local source of working WiFi. So this blog is brought to you courtesy of the Inn at Ravenglass.

As it was only the first week of digging, the main thing happening was opening up all three of the trenches again and carefully cleaning them up, so we could see where we left the contexts at the end of the dig in September 2013.

Trench 1, with trenches 2 & 3 in the distance

There is also a mysterious fourth trench ... This will be used for Outreach activities particularly on school visits, but also on our Open Days on Friday 12^th September, Saturday 13^th September and 27^th September, so that visitors can have a go at digging

Meanwhile, at the compound we were settling into a new routine of putting up two gazebos each morning, and then taking them down again at the end of the day.  One gazebo is the Lake District's, where the Outreach Team, led by Holly & Kim, are welcoming visitors, giving them more information about the site, as well as taking people on tours. Ably backing them up are Ravenglass regulars Brian & Leo. The other blue canopied gazebo, which will always be behind the the first, is for our finds washers. If you do a session there, expect to be part of the visitor experience too!

Lake District gazebo and finds washing gazebo

Although we have many diggers from the local community returning this year, there are plenty of new faces too. But everyone, on their first day, has to have an introductory talk, including background about the site, health and safety, housekeeping, and so on.

Director Kurt takes roll call

The weather is being very kind to us so far this year, so the Finds Hut team (Janice, Rosalie and Sandra) are starting to bag up properly dry finds and happily contemplating even marking some of the pottery – no marking happened at all last year. 

WiFi willing, there will be another site report on Wednesday, when we're back from our 'weekend.'

Comment: Not long now!

Hot off the press, it's the dig's 2014 tshirt!  Those who have already ordered theirs from ZikZak, should receive them soon.

Now it feels like the dig is really happening! Serious packing has begun here in York - we're tracking down and sorting out equipment, making sure we have paperwork, and everything else we need for a month's stay in Ravenglass.

The core digging team is the same as last year - Kurt is directing, Bryan and Rowan are supervising, and I will be lurking in the finds hut again. There will be changes in the staffing for the environmental sampling and fieldwalking, plus the addition of a Community Archaeologist on the open days to supervise the new Trench 4. There'll be more details in a later blog.

By this time next week in Ravenglass, the cabins will have arrived to form the compound. After picking up Rowan from ArcHeritage in Sheffield, and calling in at YAT in York to pick up the digging equipment, a big van will have arrived and been unpacked.

The team will be assembled and looking forward to another intensive and exciting excavation in the vicus at Ravenglass - see you soon!

Report: Project Results Evening, 3rd June

There was a great line up of talks about the results from 2013's Romans in Ravenglass digging season.  Also promised was a preview of plans for the  2014's excavations  ...

Finds Viewing
First up, as from 6.30pm, was the Finds Viewing. In fact, some people were so keen, that they arrived well before the advertised time, and the finds were still being unpacked!  Sandra and Kurt fielded lots of questions, and even got to view some pottery brought in by a local collector.






By 7pm, when the talks were about to begin, the Old Laundry at Muncaster Castle was pretty much packed!  There were new faces, as well veterans from 2013.

Introductions

When everyone was settled, an introduction was given by Peter Frost-Pennington of Muncaster Castle who is the managing director of the land the excavations are on. He was looking forward to hearing about the results and the forthcoming season.

Holly spoke briefly about the upcoming showing of Romans in Ravenglass film and thanked the community for their participation in the project so far.
 The various versions of the Romans in Ravenglass film can be found here.





The excavations
After this, Kurt spoke about the results of last year's dig, which included an overview of the trench results (see Trench 1, Trench 2 and Trench 3 reports), and also the extensive Geophyscial survey. For 2014 Kurt told us about new Trench 4 to be used for schools and open days, giving the opportunity for schools (when they visit with Lisa) and visitors (on the Open Days) to have a go at digging. In addition, there are plans to have volunteer placements on site and helping on finds. These are for people with some experience who will have the opportunity to go into either site or finds work more deeply and have more responsibility. They will have longer stretches of time doing site or finds work. Further details will appear here and on the Lake District website soon.

The site will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, a change from the previous year. Sunday will allow those who work elsewhere during the week to have a choice of days to come to site, as well as allowing more weekend visitors to look round the excavations.

Outreach
Lisa then told the audience about the Outreach programme, which allowed several local schools to have a fun time learning about the Romans and digging in the classroom as well as on site.  In 2014 there will be three more site Open Days on the 12th, 13th and 27th September, as well as more schools visiting, along with the local Young Archaeologists' Club and Lake District Young Rangers. 

Last year, day-to-day site tours were run by dig stalwarts Leo and Brian, who managed to cover most days throughout the four weeks, and along with others as visitor numbers went up later on in the season. Visitor Experience Guides are now needed this season to spread the word about the background to the project and show the public and passers by around the site, and those interested will need to attend a training session on  August 9th - see further details here. The Romans in Ravenglass project finds will also be on display at the Living History Festival 24th-25th August at Muncaster Castle, and volunteers are needed for this event.

Sign up
The signing up forms for the 2014 season can be found on the Lake District's Roman in Ravenglass webpage.

After a short session of questions, the evening ended with people enthused and ready for the next season of excavations in September!

Report: 30th September

All the digging had stopped, and now the packing started in earnest.   The first cabin to go was the Welfare Unit.   Meanwhile, the trenches were being backfilled:

The Finds Officer took the opportunity for a couple of snaps of the finds before they were packed away in their boxes:

This is the colour-coated folded beaker that was found during the last week of the dig.  It has a buff fabric, but a grey-brown slip over it, which may be trying to imitate a metal such as pewter.

Ironically on the first Saturday of the dig, there was a Potter at the Pennington Arms, showing how he made made reproduction Roman pots. One of the pots on show was a folded beaker, laying on its side - these pots tended to have small bases, so were top heavy:

Eventually, the finds were all packed up ready for the van that was to arrive mid-afternoon:

Then it was a case of taking down the fencing and waiting for the van:

By around 5pm, we were all packed up and ready to return to Yorkshire.

We're now looking forward to the 2014 season of Romans in Ravenglass!

Digger's view: Trevor Batchelor - Impressions

Digger's view: Trevor Batchelor - Finds work

Digger's view: Justin Wood

Any excuse for a blog! Holly sent me these a few days back, and they are from Justin Wood: