08 July 2012

Latest Results: Ringmer

Searching for Roman roads in Sussex is the subject of my long term project, and recently I have had the chance to survey a previously unknown section of road near Ringmer. This section of road connects with two others, but whilst they are made of flint, this road, as you can see from the results, is made from both flint and Roman iron bloomery slag, which makes it easy to spot. There have apparently been a lot of coins found in the area, but it looks like the site has been picked clean, as nothing seems to be appearing now. To the south of the road are a number of 'features' I can't decide yet whether they are geological or archaeological, but I am tending towards the latter. I will be starting a different project soon, but I will be returning to this site with a new blog post at some point in the future.


04 July 2012

Latest Results: Teston

It is not often that you get to survey a Roman villa, this is only my second. Whilst I usually go for magnetometry these days, masonry eroding from the surface at the site of Teston Roman villa in Kent made resistivity the obvious choice, as resistivity is much better at finding walls than magnetometry. A bath house had already been found here,to the north-west, and building material in the field to the north, but here was an opportunity to look for buried walls in a relatively undamaged area. There is a distinct difference in types of walls found at this site. There are strong features towards the north, and more ephemeral linear features towards the south. Walls of both types show in both survey areas, and in the eastern area, a difference in alignment between two sets of walls suggest two different phases of building. The southern part of the eastern set of walls also contains what looks like an apsidal room, with a wing to what looks like a villa building headings south. You may hear more from me on this site in the future.