Well, it was very quiet yesterday. I went to site and the only people who showed up were a couple with a dog who didn't even know Olivers Mound was there! So I took the opportunity to wash some of the finds from Trench 1.
Pottery from Trench 1, including a nice rim sherd, probably from a shallow bowl.
Me, marking up some finds.
Washed one of the roof tiles and I am inebted to Rollo for providing more of an insight into where these stone roof tiles came from. These tiles were not local, as with the rest of the sandstone for constructing the castle seemed to be, and consisted of a fine grained greenish-red sandstone with small proportions of muscovite mica, which Rollo has surmised is 'St Maughans Formation' and probably came from Bromyard or Herefordshire areas, possibly as far as the Welsh Border.
A tile from the Trench 2 tile spread.
We were soon joined by Rod and Rollo and we had a small tour of the small quarry to the east of the site from which the castle stone would have come, which was excellent as I had missed it on Day 1 (Monday). However, it was clear there was a lot of geology going on (I don't pretend to understand it all, but Rollo is best to explain!).
The small sandstone quarry.
The base of the quarry is eroded away because of the presence of a lake here some 26 million years ago, with layers denoting times of flash floods, stronger and less stronger current and areas of dry and wet. Obviously, it is the smoother stone layer above that was used for quarrying and the cut marks from where blocks of stone were removed in trenches are still present on the face.
Medieval cutmarks still in the sandstone.
Rollo at the quarry - note the layers of below the main quarrying stone depicting events of millions of years ago
Despite warnings that the weather was going to be bad, it was one of the hottest days so far this week. Not so great now, though - will be bringing my waterproofs to site tomorrow!
You work so hard but it seems like you are enjoying this dig. Nice to see a picture of you! Hugs and kisses