Remus was a Roman soldier who had given his first position in the fort at Malton and would often spend his free time in the nearby settlement. He would often walk from the fort to the settlement via the road which ran from the fort through the centre of the settlement. It was to the right of this road where many of the higher status members of the settlement lived and to the left of the road held many the shops which the villagers bought goods from.

Remus knew some of the higher members of the society who lived in the area to the right of the road. The people who lived here would sometimes buy samian ware which came all the way from Gaul and had been imported. The only time Remus ever saw this type of table ware was when he was invited to parties and gatherings which some of the soldiers were sometimes invited to.

Remus would also stop by the first shop on the left side of the road to buy products or snacks which were weighed via the use of scales to determine how many coins had to be paid.

He would also often visit the granary to make sure that the storage space held enough grain for those who required it and to make sure the drain behind the building was being maintained in order to make sure the grain in the granary would keep and wouldn’t be affected by rain.

Remus also visited the blacksmiths when the horses were in need of new horseshoes or when weaponry of his own or others needed mending. The blacksmiths was also on the left side of the road and was the next shop near the granary.

Mostly life for Remus in Malton was quiet and his position in the fort was mostly required to keep the peace in the surrounding areas.

The story of Remus is based off finds on the site-

• The samian ware was found mostly in what is thought as prestigous buildings nearer the river and to the right of the roman road coming from the fort.

• The idea of the structure to the left side of the road holding a shop near the road is based of the scales which have been found and where likely used to weigh small objects.

• The granary is thought to be linked to the drain due to the drain leading water away from the structure which would be required to keep the grain from spoiling. It is thought to be a granary as the floor was designed to have a gap between the floor and the base of the building.

• The idea of there being a blacksmiths is based of the horseshoe which was found inside a structure which leads into the field.
• All of the story is based upon the finds which have been found on site and are some of the possible interpretations of the site. The story of Remus is therefore fictional.

Final day of excavation

Due to today being the final day of excavation for the season the day was spent making sure that all the paperwork was complete and that an updated trench plan was finished. Therefore, the day was spent filling in context sheets for different features, deposits or cuts, and plans for them were complete.

Whilst the work on the paperwork was also being done work was also being completed on the drain. Samples being taken from the drain in order to see if analysis will bring any knowledge on what exactly the drain was being used for. Unfortunately the capping stone which was removed yesterday for the samples to be taken confused many. The removal of the said capping stone didn’t reveal the drain sides on which the capping stone was meant to be set. The sides of the drain in this area have yet to be found but the area in which samples were being taken without the existing capping stone did have sides on the drain.

A site tour was once again given to the students and it is now thought that there is a kiln in the trench above ours. Therefore, our trench is surrounded by an area which has been designed to provide and produce products for the people of the settlement. This further supports the theory that our trench could very well hold a blacksmiths workshop.

There is further support that the boundary wall for the structure which leads into the field, the supposed blacksmiths, is aligned to a different path or road other than the main roman road from the fort. This is because the granary which has the ditch next to it in which the drain leads to is aligned with the fort and therefore the roman road. However, the structure we have is not in the same alignment as the fort this is because it is further back then the fort and therefore is aligned with some other central point.

S.S.Squires

Sixteenth day of excavation

Whilst the weather was moderately warm and the end of the excavation is near for this season the majority of the morning was spent of finishing paperwork and making sure everything was correctly filed away. This part of the process is extremely important in order to understand what was done during excavation and for everything to be pulled together. This is also extremely useful in understanding what to focus on for the next season and where to start to achieve the aims of the excavation.

The rest of the day was then filling out paperwork and drawing plans in order to move forward and give an understanding of the trench for the next season. Therefore the entirety of the cobbles in our trench were planned via the use of grid squares, each square 20cm by 20cm, in order to help plan each individual cobble to a scale of 1:20 (for each 1cm on a piece of paper in equals 20cm in real life). Whilst this is time consuming the process for bigger rock features are usually more mathematical.

When planning the capping stones on the other side of the drain cut by the antiquarian trench a tape was set up to create an x and y around the stones. The x and y points of corners and curves of each rock are taken and drawn to the scale of 1:20 in order to draw each individual capping stone.

Once the capping stones on the drain were planned in met work could begin on the excavation of the drain fill. In order to get into the drain one of the capping stones was removed. Usually in an excavation all of then would be removed to sample all the drain fill but due to the amount of time left only one was removed. Therefore, excavation of the drain fill was only started under one capping stone and in an area where the capping stone had been missing.

The work on the drain today differed from the other half of the drain which was previously worked on and has been cut in half by the antiquarian trench. The part of the drain which was worked on today had nearly all of its capping stones whereas the other half barely had any left. The drain today also seemed to be missing some parts of the side of the drain whereas the previously worked on part had complete sides.

It was also suggested today that the horseshoe which was found on Tuesday may link to the structure it was found in to be that of a blacksmith. This could make sense due to the layout of the settlement, prestigious buildings were thought to be of the other side of the roman road compared to the trench we our working in. Other structures on the same side of the roman road as ours also appear to be a shop and a granary which could mean that our structure was also used as a store or for the purpose of producing or providing for those who lived in the settlement.

If the area was important for providing for the settlement it would explain the drain as a drainage system near a granary which is suggested to be right next to the ditch which the drain would have ran into would have been extremely important. Having a drainage system near the granary would aid in keeping the grain away from rain and therefore help in its storage and therefore the drain would have been key in the keeping of the grain which would have sustained the people of the settlement.

S.S.Squires

Fourteenth day of excavation

Once again the weather in Malton was lovely and warm. It was due to the conditions of today work progressed on the postholes, the drainage system and the area around the walls thought to be a structure linked to the boundary walls.

It was whilst work was being done on the walls which are thought to be a structure which leads into the field from the boundary wall an unusual find was found. This find being an extremely small horseshoe. For its location to be near the wall on what could have been the inside of a building is not unusual for those who know the superstition of horseshoes. Horseshoes which are placed above doors of a house are usually thought to ward away evil (1). This could possibly explain why a horseshoe could have been found inside a possible structure but even if it was used for this purpose it is unknown when exactly the horseshoe became superstitious (2). Therefore, this superstition may not have been around at the time of the Roman period. Another the horseshoe which was found also only has 5 nail holes on it and if this horseshoe was going to be used for luck it would have been more lucky to have 7 holes (3) as it is a favoured number and supposedly the “world’s favourite number” (4).

Another interpretation of the horseshoe is that the horseshoe was designed for a small horse as animals have only become bigger over time due to human interference in animal breeding. Therefore, the horseshoe could have been made to fit a horse which was naturally that size or to fit a horse which was still quite young.

On the other side of the trench progress was made on the drain. The capping stones which covered the drain original were removed from the part of the drain which led into the ditch and was truncated by the antiquarian trench. However, before this could be done a plan of the capping stones had to be drawn and there position above sea level recorded. Once they were removed another plan was drawn for the fill of the drain. The rest of the afternoon was then spent removing the fill of the drain and placed into sampling buckets. The entire fill of the drain is being taken for sampling in order to fully understand what the drain was used for and therefore understand the importance of the building around the surrounding areas. This could help further the knowledge of who lived or worked in the area and why they needed the drain.

Work also progressed on the postholes which were found on the cobbled area of the trench. More postholes were located and excavated and there seems to be a pattern of there being some sort of animals teeth in the very bottom of the majority of the postholes. This may very well have been a roman superstition which isn’t as popular as horseshoes are today.

S.S.Squires

Bibliography

(1)- GoodLuckSymbols.com. (2018). Good Luck Horseshoe. [Online]. GoodLuckSymbols.com. Available at: https://goodlucksymbols.com/good-luck-horseshoe/. [Accessed 14/05/19].

(2)- Tuttle, R. (2014). Lucky Charms, Horseshoes and their Superstitions. [Online]. Odd Random Thoughts. Available at: http://oddrandomthoughts.com/lucky-charms-horseshoes-and-their-superstitions/. [Accessed 14/05/19].

(3)- Kentucky Derby Museum. (2014). The Legend of the Horseshoe. [Online]. Kentucky Derby Museum, Kentucky. Available at: https://www.derbymuseum.org/Blog/Article/52/The-Legend-of-the-Horseshoe. [Accessed 14/05/19].

(4)- Derbyshire, D. (2014). Why ‘Lucky 7’ really is the world’s magic number. [Online]. Mail Online, UK. Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2601281/Why-lucky-7-really-magic-number.html. [Accessed 14/05/19].

Thirteenth day of excavation

The thirteenth day of excavation saw weather which was not that of rain but instead was warm and sunny.

Today also saw a new interpretation of what was previously thought to be a cut into the boundary wall which lead to a possible structure in the field. The new interpretation of the boundary wall cut is that it could have possibly been a robbers hole and that someone attempted to take something from the boundary wall.

It is also thought that the area near the cobbles in our trench is now an area of a possible structure as postholes have been found to the side of this cobbled area. This could suggest that there was once a structure there and that it would have had a wooden frame.

Today also saw the removal of the area around the drain finished as soil samples were taken and the remaining material was carefully sieved to find any finds which may have fallen through.

It was while the samples were being taken a sherd of Samian ware was found. This is typical thought to be a prestigious table ware for the Roman period which was usually imported from Gaul, modern day France, and therefore when this piece of pottery was once complete could have been on show in a persons house in Malton.

The drain was also cleaned today and each part of the drain was given a context number in order to later understand what occurred to the area once the drain can be removed. A context number was given to the collapse or possible surface to the side of the drain, a number given to the drain itself, a number given to the fill which is in the drain and a number given to the capping stones which are appear in the middle of the drain every so often.

The drain was then photographed and were started to be planned, via being drawn, in order for them to be recorded and therefore abled to be removed to get to the context below.

The finds from today included the piece of Samian ware and also included sherds of other types of pottery and tile and a few animal bones.

S.S.Squires

Twelfth day of excavation

After the previous three days of miserable weather including rain the twelfth day of excavation finally saw a sunny day.

Whilst the antiquarian trench was completed a couple of days ago a find which was found in the trench was enlightened to me today. The find being a nail in the wall of the trench which was thought to have been put in its position when the trench was created by the antiquarians around the 1800s. The nail may have been put in wall in order to aid in measurements of the trench or to understand more about the composition of the soil surrounding the sides of the trench. Either way the nail appears to have been placed near the corner of the trench and was put there for a reason.

The layer which we were removing for the previous couple of days, via the use of hoes, was completed and attention was moved on to cleaning around the drain in the same area. At the moment it is still unknown where the drain goes to as it seems to disappear in the middle of our trench, hopefully within the next week we will be able to find where this trench used to be.

It was also today whilst cleaning the opposite side of the layer which needed to be removed we found a couple of finds which to me hold some interest.

One find we found was an unusual piece of what seems to be pottery. The sherd is in the shape of a near perfect triangle which amazed me due to most sherds usually breaking into random pieces. It is thought the piece is a piece of pottery as whilst the piece is triangular in shape the sherd is curved which could mean it could have been apart of a circular obect.

Another find found today was that of what may be a piece of tile or pottery. The piece may look like a normal piece of pottery or tile from the outside but when the piece is seen from the side the piece is layered. The find seems to be two pieces of a red material with a blueish-purplish material sandwiched in-between. Another piece of the similar material was found a couple of days ago in the same layer but on the other side of the drain.

More work was also done around the boundary wall and the cobbled surface leading up to said wall. It is now thought that there is a cut near the boundary wall and the edge of the trench. Therefore someone may have dug into the boundary wall at some point. This is near the structure which starts in the trench and goes on into the field.

The ditch near the edge of our trench also saw more advancement. It is also now thought that the drain may have been designed to end near this ditch in order to empty whatever the drain carried into the trench.

S.S.Squires

Eleventh day of excavation

After yesterday’s terrible weather which caused the excavation to be called off for the day the weather today was still miserable and didn’t aid in the excavation overall.

The antiquarian trench whilst was fully dug yesterday had its small finds, a coin and a metal nail, GPS recorded via the use of a total station. (A laser is sent from the total station to a prism which is placed above the location of the find. The time taken for the beam to return is counted along with the positioning of the total station to accurately give the location a GPS point which is placed on GIS). This means important finds can be located on a map and therefore help with interpretation later, an example of this is maybe noticing a pattern later such as metal scrap from metal working in one area could be interpreted as a metal-work workshop.

The layer which was mentioned to being removed previously was once again being removed today via the use of a hoe in order to gently remove the soil. With more removal occurring today it was noticed that there was more patches of charcoal in the soil which were also seen earlier in the week when removing the layer on the opposite side of the drain. It is still uncertain why there may be charcoal in the layer but as there is more of it then just in this area it may have an importance.

Whilst also removing the layer today we found another small find this being a metal object which we are uncertain of what it exactly is. The area in which the object was found can be found in the pictures above as there is a white plastic tab in the ground. The tab was placed in the ground in order to point out the location for it to be GPS located which it was later in the day.

Cleaning around the drain around the edge of the trench was left for today due to the rain and instead focus was moved onto the ditch which separates our trench from the trench to the south east of ours. Environmental samples were taken from the area surrounding and also sieved which aided in the finding of another metal nail.

S.S.Squires

The Tenth Day of excavation

Today’s weather while miserable, constant light showers, held the finishing of the cleaning of the antiquarian trench and major progress in the stripping of the layer of soil from the plan drawn last week (for further information on what precisely was being removed look at the ninth or eighth day of excavation blog). It is due to the weather tomorrow, heavy rain is forecasted, the excavation is being called off tomorrow.

Whilst the cleaning of the antiquarian trench was occurring today the team of two cleaning noticed two coins in the bottom which were individually bagged as small finds and given there own finds number instead of being grouped and placed within a bag of finds from the same context.

The work done on the removal of the layer of soil from within the plan saw massive progress. The slope which was seen in one area did not seem to occur on the other side of the drain but instead seemed to slope down. It is thought that this may have been cut into at a later date than the slope on the other side. Therefore if the slope which goes down did once match the other side someone dug, cut, into this layer causing the change in the sloping.

However, the weather today made it extremely hard to work on site as due to the removal of the topsoil the layers which are in the trench become waterlogged and puddles appear. This meant that in the area where the removal of the layer was occurring the soil became very sticky and clumpy from the clay within reacting to the rain water.

Further work was also done on the cleaning around the start of the drain at the beginning of our trench which resulted in the finds of a couple of big sherds of pottery. Work also was started on cleaning the area around the cobbles and what is thought to be the boundary wall they seem to go up to.

The finds from today included the two coins and the usually small sherds of pottery and animal bones. However, from the removal of a layer of soil we were also able to find a big piece of animal bone which seems to be a shoulder blade.

S.S.Squires

The ninth day of excavation

Friday not only saw a morning consisting of on and off rain but also saw a shortage of members of our trench group.

Despite this the cobbles which were mentioned previously were fully cleared of any remaining topsoil. The cobbles were cleared systematically via the use of trowelling moving from one side of the trench to the other, moving towards the red bucket.

The removal of a layer of soil previously mentioned, 02/05/19- blog post, was also continued. The process of this removal to get to the next context may take a couple more days to complete. However, it is thought at the time that the layer needed to be removed is a lot thinner than thought and that there may be another set of cobbles underneath which has caused the layer to be thinner. There has also been patches of ash been exposed as the layer is removed and we are not sure why there seems to be patches of this material.

Our trench group was also given a tour of the site again to see the progress made overall. Unfortunately I was only able to join the tour when it was nearing its end which luckily included our group trench. The site manager now thinks that the cobbles were part of an exterior and go up to a boundary wall. The boundary wall is thought to be the parameter of another building which is outside of the trench and into the field we our excavating.

The finds today were added to the finds tray of the pervious day as the finds from the cobbles are in the same context and the finds from the removal of the layer are another context. This means we had two finds trays for the last two days, however, the finds tray from the cobbles has now ended. The finds from today included similar things to what has been previously found, sherds of pottery and animal bones.

S.S.Squires

Eighth day of excavation

The afternoon was spent on the site of excavation after spending the morning at Malton Museum.

Since monday nearly all the topsoil has been removed by trowels and the only remaining topsoil is at the edge of the trench on what seems to look like a cobbled surface.

Today also saw the finishing of a drawn plan of one of the contexts, one of the layers underneath the topsoil, of the trench. This was a plan of a context which was thought to hold the collapse of some sort of structure and therefore the afternoon was spent removing the layer by mattocking to reach the next context.

Work had also moved on in the antiquarian trench within our trench, trench-ception. This antiquarian trench was being dug into to find the bottom of where they had their bottom of their original trench.

The finds from today were starting to come from different contexts, different layers of the soil, and therefore meant that they had to be given a context number in order to know where they came from within the trench. Finds from today consisted of similar things as previously found in the topsoil, small sherds of pottery and some pieces of animal bones.

The drainage system which was previously found was found to carry on at another point within the trench but had collapsed.

S.S.Squires