Let me start by saying today was far superior to yesterday. Dr Bob had just a handful of us working on Square 95, whilst he would be supervising unearhing a floor mosaic in the southern aisle section of Area E, one that had been unearthed during the previous season. Most of the crew in the meantime would be working on the newly broken Square 96, just above us.
Now that most of the heavy lifting had been done in Square 95, and the pesky column had been laid to rest, it would be down to simply moving dirt whilst indulging in some careful sifting. For this Khaled and I were joined by Jennifer and Hannah, who by this stage were pretty keen get their hands dirty, after spending most of the time drawing up Top Plans, not the most exciting gig in the world. And can I say what a delight it was to have some female energy digging in the dirt. Not to mention all the pop music and new country coming from Jen's iPhone. Yes, I said New Country - at this stage I was pretty starved for any music from the west, to the extent that even the Dixie Chicks to my ears sounded like Radiohead!!!
So we dug. And we sang. And we laughed, oh how we laughed...
Anyway, now that the impending danger of an unstable column had been taken care of, Jennifer would focus on digging around the chancel screen, carefully collecting any shards that had loosened themselves from the unearthing. At this stage we were of the opinion that pickings in the area would be pretty slim (something that would be confirmed by our little find later on).
Hannah focussed on the area around the doughnut shaped stone artefact that Luke had unearthed the previous day. Once she'd done this, we were then faced with having to decide what the hell it was. Dr Bob was of the opinion that it was some kind of pivot used for a door, hence the half spherical shape with the doughnut hole in the middle.
I personally thought it was possibly a large pestle whose middle had been worn away to make the hole, although what something like this would be doing in a chapel would be anyone's guess. Hannah also managed to find some bits of pottery together that had once been part of the same bowl.
She also made a new friend in the dirt.
Khaled and I kept to digging on the other side of the mound. Apart from the odd bit of glass, pottery, and the odd nail, nothing much to write home about. Was starting to get a bit tedious, as you can tell from Khaled's expression. We kept digging in the southern direction, towards Square 96. We did unearth what would appear to be a makeshift limestone wall that was dividing this section from where Square 96 would be. Obviously it was too early to tell the significance of such a we all, we wouldn't know until the other crew had dug further into Square 96.
Not a lot was being found around the chancel screen. Jennifer did manage to find this. Dr Bob believed it to be a spindle wheel, probably used in the production of textiles. Not the sort of thing you'd find in a chapel, unless the bishop would keep some spare thread handy to sew up his robe.
But the most significant find of the day was this, which only proved to confirm our suspicions that nothing of any great significance would be found here. What you see here, dear reader, is the head of a heavily oxidized pick. The fact that it was found so close to the surface of the floor indicates that it probably belonged to the earliest "excavators" looking for anything of value, probably not so long after that earthquake hit in 749. Anything of value to be found had most likely been found and taken long before we got here. Nevertheless, the fact that Luke found a heavily oxidized coin yesterday still spurred us on - after all, there was still that holy grail of the inscription that Dr Bob really wanted to get his hands on.
In the meantime, Dr Bob was busy digging in the aisle to the south of the (formally cross baulk now ceremonial pool). The 2010 excavation had previously unearthed a beautiful mosaic floor covering the aisle, a remnant of the previous church prior to its extension. In order to protect it, he'd left it filled in, and on his return was keen to unearth some more of it.
Come 12.30, and it was time to quit for the day. Head home, wash, lunch, laundry, try and get a sleep in. Pottery reading that afternoon to examine the previous day's finds. Area A had uncovered these unusual pieces, very beautiful I thought. Almost looked like someone was practicing doing different designs in the one piece, almost like a practice piece.
Had a few of these circular pieces crop as well - apparently it was common practice to use old bits of pottery for tokens of some sort, for some game or other. Cards anyone?
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