Methodology_T26

Excavation will take place in the north of the OC2 plaster floor. The plaster floor will be removed in one small area but will otherwise remain unexcavated.

Soil will be broken up with the pointed end of a hand pick and then sorted into buckets and removed from the trench, saving any archaeological materials recovered. The trench will be regularly tidied with trowels and the baulk walls trimmed to better examine potential changes in stratigraphy.

Terracotta tile and plaster will be collected into a bowl for each locus. These bowls will be counted at the end of each work day and discarded in a tile dump north of the T45 trench. Pottery and bone will be collected in bulk by locus and will be counted and taken to the magazzino for cleaning and study at the end of each work day.

For special finds recovered during hand sorting into buckets, the coordinates and elevations will be recorded. In order to determine the coordinates, a plumb bob will be held over the location of the special find, and then the distance from two perpendicular baulk walls will be determined by extending a tape measure at a right angle from the string of the plumb bob to the string marking the boundaries of the trench. In order to determine the elevation of special finds, once again a plumb bob will be held over the find spot. A string with a line-level will be attached to a fixed datum point and will be pulled taut 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 absolute elevation of the datum point is known, the absolute elevation of the special find may be calculated using the found relative elevation.

Excavation methods may change throughout the season, as the types and amounts of material found, as well as the geology and topology of the trench, ultimately determine the best excavation method.