Report: Relentless sun (we're not complaining)

Unhindered by the weather so far this year (though some of the staff say the ground has dried out too much ...) exciting events are unfolding.

Thursday 18^th saw James Gerrard of Newcastle University visiting the Roman Baths standing remains to record them using a laser scanner. It was very much a test session for James, but the results already look very promising – more on that at a later date. He was very happy to give a talk about the work to both our diggers and the school party who were also visiting that day.

Scanner, diggers & James at the Ravenglass Roman Baths

From Friday 19th to Sunday 21^st Nicola Reid from Northlight Heritage of Glasgow, was on site showing diggers how to process environmental samples using a flotation tank and sieves. As well as finding small fragments of pottery, iron, charcoal and slag, some seeds have also come to light.

Nicola (Northlight Heritage), diggers and tank

On Saturday 20th, Steve Malone came up from Trent & Peak Archaeology of Nottingham to take high level pictures of the trenches and some of the buildings. This involved putting a camera on a very long pole – the results will appear later!

Polecam in action (thanks to Rosalie M for the photo)

Also on Saturday, the local Young Archaeologists' Club visited to dig in trench 4 and found out more about the site.

Lisa (Outreach Co-ordinator) and members of YAC visiting trench 4 (thanks to Rosalie M for the photo)

So another packed five days, and we're onto our final week of digging. If you're in the area, don't forget it's our special celebration open day on Saturday 27th September, complete with a Roman soldier visiting to inspect us and meet lucky visitors!