SEDGEFORD HISTORICAL  AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Weblog Week 3 (23rd July to 28th July 2006)

Naomi Payne

All the supervisors I’ve spoken to seem to concur that this has been a bit of slow and uneventful week. Up the hill on the Roman Project a number of new slots have been cut through the big east-west ditch and the ditch which cuts it, which we have discovered has two recuts. There’s also a new slot through the large Iron Age ditch which we have found to be very shallow and it has been mooted that this represents a sunken pathway. Five sherds of unabraded Iron Age pot were discovered in this fill. Two slots have been excavated through the gully to the west of this ditch and we appear to have found a possible entrance to the enclosure. Interesting finds include a small pair of copper alloy tweezers of probable Roman date and a spindle whorl made from the broken base of a pot.

On New Trench we have continued to excavate the north-south ditch and the south-west to north-east diagonal ditch which we believe to be the cemetery’s boundary ditch. A large quantity of oyster shell (400+) came from one context, presumably a small midden deposit. Everything has been much the same on the ever decreasing Old Trench. Five burials have been under excavation this week, three in coffins and two which are possibly shroud burials. There is a lot more orange and some probable Iron Age features are now appearing, including a possible internal structure within the hoard enclosure. Finds-wise we’ve had several worked flints. Hopefully there’ll be more to report next week.