Day 11
Monday 6th September

“Why did all those Romans live underground?” A little boy from Year 4 Aldeburgh Primary School


Finds and Features

This was the day for features: many post holes have been found and are being excavated and photographed. Clare Foss, laboriously chipping away at hers, noted a pile of pot bits beside it and recalled that when she was working in Greece, they had found the same, presumably to placate the gods.

The other big work of the day was to cut a cross-section through one of the supposed ditches shown up by the geo-physical survey. Richard Marson, Hugh and Pippa worked deeper and deeper, to shouts from Jezz and Duncan to “Keep digging!” By the end of the afternoon they had a huge hole which clearly showed the outline of the Roman ditch in cross-section.

Visitors
The children of Year 4 from Aldeburgh Primary School arrived with their teachers and had a wonderful time asking questions and sieving for treasure. Sammy and Luke found a bellamite fossil, and Cameron Jamieson located a pot rim. I talked to Rachel Cable, Amy Osborne and Katie Firman who had been excited to see the pattern emerging on a piece of pottery as it was washed. They also told me that dirt is a different colour when it is older “a sort of yellowy orange”(Pleistocene sand). Scott Fleming and James Collier also managed to describe the probable shape of a pot from a fragment of the rim, because “this is nearly flat so it must have been quite big”. Observant children.

Aline and David Black, experienced magnetometer users, also came on site and gave us the wonderful aerial photo they had taken on Sunday (q.v.). They spoke to the group about their work, explaining that the magnetometer responds to changes in the earth’s magnetic field, measuring its vertical component. It registers kilns, brick walls and ferrous metals and is best at silted up ditches. They were glad to work on a site far from human habitation as this kept their reading clear.

They mark 30m squares and walk them every metre, taking a reading every 25cm. It reads wherever humans have ever been as apparently the bacteria associated with us are slightly magnetic. The change in reading may only be 3 or 4 nanotessers and the earth’s field is 50,000. They called Barber’s Point “a lovely site, with an incredible wow factor”.