July 3rd, 2024

AM: Today we began along the southern line of the trench. Excavators were lined up shoulder to shoulder picking up the remaining loose soil and rocks (1/2 – 3cm). Dustpans, broom heads, and trowels were used to pick up soil which was hand sifted. A piece of slag was found (about 3cm).

We ran a pickpass in the southern 1 ½ meter of the trench, in a N to S direction. We began to remove and hand sift soil. The soil is compact and brown with roots varying in size (spaghetti thickness to 1cm). Rocks are ranging from 5cm to ½. Some fragments of Pottery were found (1/2 to 3cm). About half of a bowl (bottom diameter 18cm, top d. 25cm, height: 10cm) of terracotta.

Another pickpass was run in the northern meter (6th pickpass) going south. There is a high amount of rocks, some up to 10cm but varying in size with the smallest around 1/2cm. While sorting, terracotta and ceramics continue to be found. There was a concentration of terracotta (5 pieces) in the NW quadrant of the trench. We began by hand removing the larger rocks, then shoveling soil into wheelbarrows and hand sorting. Some 3 cm roots were uncovered and clipped in the NW quadrant.

SF1

• Sf-t108-2024-1-1 • Fragment of medieval pottery with paint present on both sides • Locus 1 • 119 W/89.5 N • 28.095m Elevation

We continued to removed and sift soil. Then axed two of the large roots deriving from the two stumps in the west end of the trench.

We found additional terracotta, mostly eroded nubs, with some 3 to 4cm chunks. The ceramic sherds we continue to find vary in size, color and thickness. A few rim pieces were found. The larger pieces are 2 to 3cm and the smaller ones are about 12 to 1cm in size. A seventh pickpass was run from the central meter ranging E to W starting from N going S. More rocks were loosened, a larger concentration of them in the eastern half of the meter. These rocks are variable in size, the largest were about 8cm, and the smaller ones were roughly 1cm. The soil now is less compact, as the chunks coming up after the pickpass are 5cm max (and), but most of them are crumbly. Continued recovering terracotta fragments, ceramic fragments. Less rocks were recovered in the central meter in comparison to the northern meter. There are more roots present in this area however.

The eighth pickpass ran from the southern meter ranging east to west. We began pickaxing in the northern side of the meter and made our way south. We shoveled the soil into wheelbarrows and sorted. We clipped roots and removed dirt around the stump in the center of the west trench line. The amount of rocks and soil in this meter is consistent to the remainder of the trench. There seem to be slightly less terracotta and ceramic fragments here and those present are more fragmentary.

PM: We finished shoveling up the remaining loose soil from the eighth pickpass, it was less than a full wheelbarrow. Then we ran a pickpass from the northernmost meter ranging east to west. The soil coming loose in clumps of 3 to 4cm on average.

In this meter we encountered similar concentrations and a similar amount of terracotta and ceramic fragments. The soil we revealed after removing soil is grey brown, grainy and is in small clumps. We found an eroded piece of roofing tile with a ridge on it which may be part of a sigla. The inner perimeter of the trench was pickaxed to clean up the trench corners. We continued finding deteriorated pieces of terracotta, mostly around 2 to 3cm in size. After removing most of the loose soil from the pickpass around the corners, we pickaxed the southern corner and encountered a soil type similar to clay. This corner has a high concentration of roots ranging in size. Then we roughly swept the trench to pick up the remaining loose soil and small rocks.

Closing Elevations

NW 28.128 m NE 28.04 M SW: 27.97 SE: 28 m