Another dazzling day on the marsh at Barber's Point, and another long slog getting through the hard packed sandy soil to the natural layers below. When the breeze picked up, the relief from the heat was tempered by the dust blowing over the site in the opposite direction to yesterday.
The star event of the day has to be Anna's find of a fragment from a Saxon claw beaker - the yellow glass closely matches the colour tone of yesterday's piece, and of 3 more found today. These elaborate, pointed beakers were probably imported from the Rhine area, and are usually associated with feasting and ceremonial events. What might this one have been used for in an early Christian Saxon settlement?
Jezz's prayers for rain were partly answered by the late arrival of the water bowser, so towards the end of the day sections could be wetted to help reveal features in the parched dry soil. It also meant that finds washing could at last get under way. Pottery finds included the 'normal' Roman Samian and grey ware, further small pieces of Saxon pots, and one very small fragment of medieval green glazed pottery. Several iron nails came out of one square, raising hopes of a grave in that area. Some worked flint finds (with conchoidal fractures giving the classic wave formation on the surface) suggest there was also Neolithic activity around the site.
There were no visitors to the site today, but we are promised a TV crew from Look East tomorrow, following up on the excellent double page spread in today's East Anglian Daily Times (see www.eadt.co.uk )
During the course of the next 3 weeks we hope to introduce you to most of the team, and today we start with two of the bright young people enlivening our days.
The star event of the day has to be Anna's find of a fragment from a Saxon claw beaker - the yellow glass closely matches the colour tone of yesterday's piece, and of 3 more found today. These elaborate, pointed beakers were probably imported from the Rhine area, and are usually associated with feasting and ceremonial events. What might this one have been used for in an early Christian Saxon settlement?
Jezz's prayers for rain were partly answered by the late arrival of the water bowser, so towards the end of the day sections could be wetted to help reveal features in the parched dry soil. It also meant that finds washing could at last get under way. Pottery finds included the 'normal' Roman Samian and grey ware, further small pieces of Saxon pots, and one very small fragment of medieval green glazed pottery. Several iron nails came out of one square, raising hopes of a grave in that area. Some worked flint finds (with conchoidal fractures giving the classic wave formation on the surface) suggest there was also Neolithic activity around the site.
There were no visitors to the site today, but we are promised a TV crew from Look East tomorrow, following up on the excellent double page spread in today's East Anglian Daily Times (see www.eadt.co.uk )
During the course of the next 3 weeks we hope to introduce you to most of the team, and today we start with two of the bright young people enlivening our days.
Martha Craven (seated, centre of the finds labelling seminar) is starting her 2nd year at Trinity Hall, Cambridge reading archaeology & anthropology. She lives in Wells, Somerset and has been on about 8 previous digs. She hopes to make a career in the science side of archaeology, and is becoming known in our team as an expert in the lick test.
Cameron Bate, posing with a piece of unusual, possibly locally fired, pottery is at 6th form college in Ipswich, studying archaeology, ancient history, forensic science and IT. He plans to read archaeology at university, and his human dynamo performance on this - his 3rd - dig has seen him adopted into Jezz's own team.
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