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Methodology

The primary purpose of the excavation and recording procedures that follow is to accurately describe and record the stratigraphy of the area being explored. In order to do this the general principle will be to investigate each stratum individually. Each stratum, along with other features and deposits/cuts will be designated as a separate \x91locus'. For each locus, the dimensions and detailed description of the material culture will be recorded.

In order to remove the materials that make up each stratum a variety of excavation techniques will be employed. The primary intended method of excavation for VT12 will be to break up soil using the pointed end of a pick-axe. For strata that contain an abundance of material, soil will be removed in the trench using trowels and sorted while in the trench, directly into buckets. If the amount of material is too great to pick axe, then trowels will be used to break up the soil. However, depending

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on what is uncovered in VT12, the methods of excavation may change, as the trench and the remains found in it dictate the method of excavation.

Terracotta roofing tiles and plaster will be counted by bowls. The bowl used for counting these materials has a diameter of 25cm and a maximum depth of 10cm. Once tile and plaster have been counted, they will be discarded in a tile dump, which will be established approximately 10m south of the trench. Pottery and bone will be counted individually and sorted into cartons.

For any special finds recovered from the trench, coordinates and elevations will be taken. In order to determine the coordinates, a plumb bob will be held over the location of the special find, and then the distance from east-west and north-south baseline established on site will be determined using a tape measure held at a right angle from the string of the plumb bob to the baseline. In order to determine the elevation of special finds, once again a plumb bob will be held over the find spot of the

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special find. Simultaneously, a string with a line level will be attached to a fixed datum point and will be pulled taught and level, so that it intersects with the string of the plumb bob. A tape measure will be held so that it runs parallel to the string of the plumb bob, and the elevation relative to the datum point may then be determined. As the elevation of the datum point on the Vescovado grid system (see Trench Layout) is known, the absolute elevation of any special find may then be determined.