Cleaners and Spongers

We had a top team today. In addition to Fay, Carol, Peter and Amy our new recruits were two archaeology graduates Jack and Chris, Amy our South Somerset rural surveyor and Rob and Gillian ..May Hill NT volunteers. Stephanie also put in an afternoon of skilled mosaic preening.

Two days left before the photographs are taken and the laser scan creates the digital terrain model. All our work has been to reach this goal.

Visitors keep asking…but are you really going to cover it again? Yes. A brief moment of glory on the 25th and then two days to bed it all down and protect it under its soily cover again.

A bit more earth and rubble came off ( nail, window glass, ring and band) but we mainly dusted and sponged and were very pleased by the end of the day.

Victorian? The veneer between 1860s and 380s is very narrow.

I said to Carol. ‘We’re going to make it’

‘Yes we are Martin’ she said .. as if there had never been any doubt…Of  course…

I cleaned all day but took a couple of hours in the cool of the evening to excavate the stone water trough in the buttress trench….so much painted plaster..lots of blue but also a goldish faun coloured stripe that I had not seen before.

Steve, mosaic specialist came today. He can see the whole design and fill in the gaps. Our mosaic is not symmetrical. Someone made a mistake in the design. You’d never know. I hope the villa owner didn’t spot it.