Nicola Nartowski (left) is the Finds Supervisor for Blueboy Yard and says about her role at Time Team Live: 'The important thing with looking after the finds is that you have to relate them to the archaeology.'This isn't about finding the most treasure, but to make sure that we put the finds in their archaeological context and place them in the right time frame. This site is clearly Roman underneath a medieval deposit, so it would be great to find something that has a religious function. But really, you could find anything here – that's what archaeology is about.'
12 noon
After breaking up and removing the surface layer of concrete, the mechanical digger is halted with the trench about two feet deep. Sherds of blue and white glazed pottery have been found in a soil layer immediately below the overlying rubble. The initial identification dates some of the sherds to the early 17th century. One (see picture above) appears to be a fragment of a finely decorated flat-bottomed platter. Other finds include later pottery pieces and the ubiquitous clay pipes that turn up frequently throughout Britain. These are such a common feature on archaeological sites that they are regarded as the equivalent of discarded cigarette butts today.
It has been decided overnight to excavate the full five-metre-square trench at Blue Boy Yard so as to maximise the chances of coming up with something relating to the Roman temple complex. The finds uncovered so far, however, emphasise the fact that first they will have to investigate the expected layers of later occupation.
1pm
The first Roman find on the site. A pottery sherd, probably from a jug, is uncovered.
2pm
The removal of the surface concrete and underlying debris is now largely complete, and the excavation has reached the soil layer underneath. Meanwhile, a rumour is doing the rounds that this dig is not all that it purports to be. Locals have reported that an excavation took place on this site only a month or so ago – and that the holes were only filled in a week before Time Team arrived in Canterbury. Is the Blue Boy Yard excavation a 'set-up', people are asking, with the Team merely digging up something that has been dug already?
The answer is that there have indeed been recent excavations in Blue Boy Yard, which were filled in just before Time Team's arrival. Two trial trenches were excavated here (and another one nearby) by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust as part of their evaluation of the site. These uncovered a variety of pottery fragments, mainly medieval, with a few Roman pieces as well. But the Time Team Live trench is breaking entirely new ground. There is no 'set-up': no one knows quite what will be found here.
From the Romans to Anglo Saxons
Top: The centre of Roman Canterbury showing the Roman temple complex circa 300 (the location of the main temple structure within the complex is speculative). By around 650, Anglo-Saxon Canterbury had reverted to a much less urban architecture and lifestyle. The second illustration imagines how it might have looked from the same angle as the illustration depicting Roman Canterbury.
Reconstruction drawings by John Bowen, copyright Canterbury Archaeological Trust
^top
Great excitement surrounds the discovery of a piece of 12th-century Tyler Hill pottery – from the very site that the team is excavating just outside Canterbury. Meanwhile, a sondage (small exploratory trench) has been dug revealing a gravel surface. As the day progresses, and the trench goes deeper into earlier occupation layers, a piece of 15th-century stained glass emerges, together with the first fragments of possibly fifth-century Saxon pottery.
The Saxons are known to have occupied the site of the former Roman settlement at Canterbury after the Roman legions' departure from Britain in 410. Builders in wood rather than stone, the traces of their occupation are less obvious but no less interesting than the grander relics left by the Romans. Previous excavations on other parts of the former Roman temple complex have indicated later periods of occupation in which a much less urban architecture and lifestyle overlaid the Roman.
4pm
A coin bearing the mark of King Cunoblinus (better known as Cymbeline), an Iron-Age British king who died in 42 AD, just before the arrival of the Romans, is discovered in the spoil heap from the dig. A great example of how metal detectorists can have a useful role to play in responsible archaeological investigations.
^top
Into the cesspit
The gravel surface revealed by the sondage is confirmed as the original floor of the temple precinct courtyard. About one metre or so below the current ground level, it consists of tightly compressed small stones, with a surface metalling of finer-grained material that would have been relaid at regular intervals. After the Roman occupation the temple precinct fell into disuse and the courtyard was at some stage probably used as a corral for animals. We can conjecture that this was so because of the presence of hoof prints found in the overlying layers during previous excavations within the temple precinct.
Immediately above the Roman surface at Blue Boy Yard is a layer of dark loam, which is found throughout Canterbury. The build-up of this soil has been taken as evidence of a period of abandonment of the town after the Roman legions left Britain in 410. Paul Bennett, director of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, says that the soil, which is made by the action of worms, would have formed at a fairly constant rate of about 2.5cm a year. (This estimate has been reached as a result of studies into the rate at which soil forms on derelict or abandoned sites.) Using this as a guide, the most recent estimates of the length of this period of abandonment suggest that it went on for about 50 years.
Phil Harding, in particular, is enthusiastic about the contribution that 'dirt' can make in helping archaeologists to understand the past. 'Soil science is a fascinating subject in itself,' he says. Liza Tarbuck – who describes one pottery find this afternoon as 'looking like a charcoal dog biscuit' – does not seem wholly convinced.
Paul Bennett also explains the difference in the moisture levels of the soils at the Blue Boy Yard and Greyfriars sites. At Blue Boy Yard, which is very much wetter, he believes that the soaked soil is the result of a water leak that developed in two long-abandoned cottages nearby. (The developers of the site are overcoming the problem of waterlogging by using 'rafts' on which to construct the new homes – which has the added advantage of protecting the Roman remains beneath for future generations of archaeologists to investigate.)
Much of Saturday afternoon is spent removing this loamy layer. In the course of doing so, a number of post-medieval pits are revealed, which cut through the Roman surface. These cannot be dated with great accuracy (they were probably dug in the 17th-19th centuries), but the smell alone is evidence of their purpose: they were cesspits.
^top