Castles and Coprolites

It’s Day 7 at Birdoswald excavations for me! I was supposed to be here earlier but ended up having to self-isolate as my daughter’s nursery bubble had a positive covid case. How funny that has become such a standard part of life. It was a little frustrating watching all the news and photos from the dig being posted online whilst being stuck at home, but I am so happy to have finally got here! I am especially grateful to the wonderful B&B where I am staying, Bush Nook , who very kindly let me alter my dates at the last minute and have been wonderful hosts. Fancy bacon sarnies and coffee for breakfast, and a nice hot power shower – what more could an archaeologist want from fieldwork accommodation? I was perhaps a little ambitious in my plans to cycle to site every day. Although it is only 2 miles away, the route it turns out has two rather steep sets of stairs and hill, so I abandoned the bike and took to a leisurely stroll each morning. It is absolute bliss after being stuck wor...

Today was my first day on site at Birdoswald, a Roman fort and English Heritage site on Hadrian's Wall, where Newcastle University and Historic England are conducting a new excavation project that will run for the next few years. It feels like forever since I have been out on an excavation.  (Side note - in fact, this is the second time I've been out 'in the field' this year. The first was a site walkover at Carvoran just down the road from Birdoswald. I somehow have found myself involved in all these amazing sites along Hadrian's Wall...) Today reminded me of all the reasons why I became an archaeologist. The excitement of travelling somewhere new. Funnily, this is actually the closest excavation to home I have ever been involved in, but waiting at the train station and the journey to site had that same feeling of anticipation I have experienced working half way across the world. Watching through the window, clutching a takeaway coffee that provides the familiarit...

Some very exciting news, I'll be overseeing the environmental work for a new 5 year excavation project at Birdoswald Roman Fort , a collaboration between Newcastle University and Historic England, co-directed by Tony Wilmott and Prof. Ian Haynes . Birdoswald is a Roman Fort on Hadrian's Wall, and sits on the longest remaining section of the Wall that is still standing. There's loads of great information on the history of the site on the  English Heritage website here . The excavations will be used as a field school to train Newcastle University archaeology students, as well as being a research project. The environmental work will largely follow the Historic England guidelines which can be found here . I will be overseeing the running of the flotation tank, with a team of postgraduate students and our technicians, and also advising on any additional soil sampling for geochemistry, micromorphology etc as the excavations progress. We are lucky enough to have access to a large...

You know nothing, Lisa Shillito! This is how I sometimes feel being a micromorphologist, especially one looking at samples that are a different to the contexts I am used to. Here are some more images from the Lufton Roman Villa sample I mentioned last month . I am not actually going to say much about this as I am not entirely sure what it is, and basically am scouting for opinions from fellow geoarchaeologists. This is a small rounded inclusion about 1mm in length, consisting of lots of brownish purple rhombohedral crystals embedded in a yellowish (almost ash-like?) matrix. As you can see, the crystals themselves don't look much different in XPL. The inclusion is located within a layer of mixed microcharcoal and calcareous debris (probably from the lime layer underneath). There are some bits of lime that have a similar appearance, sort of like iron staining of the carbonate. My guess is possibly iron carbonate crystals replacing the calcium? I will definitely be bringing this slide...

I haven't posted a micrograph for ages, but this one is so pretty I just had to share it. I'm in the middle of doing an analysis of Roman occupation deposits for the Lufton Roman Villa project . I don't know too much about the wider context yet, but my initial observations of this particular sample suggests we are looking at an old floor surface. There are 3 distinct layers, and the uppermost layer is composed of a calcareous material, in which are embedded lots of tiny crushed up ceramic fragments. The middle layer is a sandy aggregate with the occasional bit of soil/clay and charcoal, and there is a very thin lowermost layer (thin because of the sample size, not sure yet how thick it was in the field) which has a lot of organic material including wood and grass charcoal, and possibly fungal spores. I will be writing more on this as the analysis progresses, but for now here is a nice image of one of the ceramic fragments (the orangey-red rectangular inclusion) embedded in...