Friday 18 October 2013

18 October 2013, Ulley Roman Project Day 5

The day started off cloudy and grey and although the rain threatened, we never got any adverse weather at all! In fact it was a nice day to work in today.


The activities got under way and we had a good turn out of helpers today, with more people coming and going all day. The geophysics team really went for it and broke the site record of eight grids surveyed in a day! Elmet will soon be out of a job!


As part of the project, we intend to involve the local community as much as possible and this is demonstrated by Brian, 81 years young and still doing archaeology!


Meanwhile, the field walking continued and we managed to finish off quite a few squares today.


However, the finds have been pretty disappointing, we have no definite Roman artefacts, just a handful of medieval pottery and lots of post-medieval and modern pottery. Having said that, absence of evidence does not necessarily mean evidence of absence... and we are still keeping our fingers crossed that the survey will produce good results!


Today's team photo!


And finally, whilst idly browsing Google Earth with the plan drawing of the fort overlaid it became quite apparent that there was an interesting coincidence with the roads in the immediate area of the field. Taking Philip Smedley's drawing as a starting point and tracing the line of the road excavated in the 1950s, it can be seen that the projection (dotted red line) runs across the centre of the field and joins Ulley Lane to the west of the field, just at the kink in the modern road. Further to this, that little section of road lines up neatly with the road heading to Aughton Crossroads. The modern road kinks past a modern farm in this place, which wouldn't have been there in Roman times. Maybe this the line of the original Roman road?


An interesting theory, that may be proved by the survey in the field showing the road running through the centre of the farm land. Keep checking back for daily updates!

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