Day 5
Monday 30th August 2004

“What’s this? Looks like a dinosaur … coprolite!” Daphne Harkness


Bright and blustery and the rain held off till lunchtime. About 28 people were working on site. The first turfed area was divided into 2 metre squares. Five of these on a diagonal were energetically trowelled and sieved, and finds bagged and marked with the number of the square according to Duncan Allan’s plan. There were puzzling differences in the soil texture, and the number of finds of pottery in the different squares.

The digger uncovered more at the river end, where there seem to be two strips of gravel with a sandy area in between. Some of the gravel is tiny and even. A dark patch of soil runs across the area.

This area was on the border between Romano-British and Iceni settlements, and there was speculation that it may be connected with, or even the hub, of salt production from the nearby Red Hills. As a valuable commodity, salt would have been taxed.

Just after midday new squares were started and these were to be trowelled only, for speed, as David Gill will extrapolate results from all the squares.

The professional team also laid down some rules: no walking on cleaned area, edges of squares, or central part where there may be finds in the ground; keep to the edge on the barrow path.

The digger had started on the new area before lunch – much sandier and some finds. Ditches and pits are showing up which will have to be investigated.

Right at the end of the afternoon, Richard Newman discovered a post hole (see left). He cleverly spotted the morsels of charcoal which indicated its position, and put in overtime bringing it back to the light of day. All we need now is one or two more, to establish the line of the construction. The charcoal could either mean that the building had burned down, or that the post had been fire hardened.