We are well and truly into the roman layers today, in the cross passage trench Tony found the original roman foundation trenches for the walls. They show up as darker strips of brown/black soil against the yellowish surface.
The original wall foundation trenches are in front of Tony at the bottom of the photo just above the wall and to his right
In the bath house trench the painted plaster is appearing in large dumps, when cleaned of it is mainly painted white with some red stripes and some yellow patches. This is the top of a very deep layer of plaster. We hope to find lower down more designs and patterns.
Rob and Tony cleaning down to reveal the plaster
The plaster cleaned and ready to be lifted so we can find more underneath!
More from underneath the white with red stripe piece
The small unassuming trench next to the cross passage trench but over the wall, produced the exciting find of a coin and this time a roman one! Jan and John found a large oyster shell and when they picked it up Jan spotted a green round thing – the coin.
Word spread, and crowds gathered as the coin reveled its Emperor in his full bearded glory!
Jan with her coin, red peg marks the spot
Roger a volunteer and coin expert had a look and gave us this identification –
‘Galerius 305-311AD co-emperor with Diocletian and Maximianus, its minted in London and is a reform ‘Follis’ on the reverse is Genius’
The obverse of coin
The reverse of the coin
Rain is forecast for the fifth day so it waterproofs out and an expectation of getting very muddy!
Archaeology National Trust SW 