Morning at Malton museum

The morning of today was not spent on site but instead was spent at Malton museum. Whilst the museum is quite small, only two rooms, the museum is lovely and free. The museum is very welcoming and run by volunteers.

A short history of the Museum

The first real museum was opened in the 1930s and was moved into the Town Hall in the 1980s which is in the Market of Malton and has since been moved to its current location at Yorkersgate.

About the visit

We were shown some of the artefacts which are not only on show but what is also taken to talks, and what activities are done with schools. For more information on what events are coming up feel free to look at their website, linked at the bottom.

One artefact we were shown was that of a tile. Whilst the front of the tile looked ordinary the tile has an imprint on the other side. This tile doesn’t have the usual animal imprint on it but instead the imprint of a child’s foot. This is suggested to be an imprint of a child under the age of four. It is unknown how exactly the imprint actually came to be on the tile but a child could have easily been running around the area in which tiles were layed out to dry in the sun or a family could have made the imprint on purpose in order to remember the birth of a child like many families do today.

I also learnt that the roman chimney that they had on display doesn’t have any soot on the inside. This could suggest that the chimney was on the roof of a bath house in order to allow steam out which would also suggest that there was a bath house in Malton. The image of this chimney can be found on the Roman collection page on the Malton Museum website, a link will be provided at the bottom.

We were also able to see replicas of artefacts which were also on display including the copper-alloy duck, which is a weight, and the jet mother bear which were amazingly made.

The Malton Museum has only just recently opened their new exhibit, Malton Horse Power.

S.S.Squires

All the information given was given by volunteers of the Malton Museum.

Malton Museum. (N/A). Home. [Online]. Malton Museum, North Yorkshire. Available at: https://www.maltonmuseum.co.uk/. [Accessed 02/05/19].

Malton Museum. (N/A). Roman Collection. [Online]. Malton Museum, North Yorkshire. Available at: https://www.maltonmuseum.co.uk/collection/roman-collection/. [Accessed 02/05/19].

The fifth day of excavation

Today we carried on with the removal of the topsoil by the use of trowels which meant that we were removing topsoil until we reached a visible colour change. Fortunately, we were able to also do this job without the hinderance of rain and were able to get the majority of it completed.

By removing more of the topsoil we unveiled more of the main wall in the trench. The picture shows what seems to be a substantial wall which may very well have been an exterior wall of a structure. Unfortunately we are unsure what this building may have been used for but due to the substantiality of the wall it is likely a lot of effort was put into the making of this building and was designed for the weather. Therefore this building may have been important to a few of the people who lived in the settlement for it to have substantial walls for working or living in.

The topsoil which we removed today held many similar finds as we had been finding perviously including small and medium sherds of pottery, pieces of small animal bones with a couple of metal nails also being found. So far the amount of finds along with the evidence of structure show that there was obvious occupation in the area and may well have been a home for based on evidence of animal bones and pottery.

The removal of topsoil is nearly done and should be fone by the end of tomorrow. Unfortunately due to me not being able to be on site tomorrow means I will be unable to aid in this removal.

By the removal of the topsoil we were able to identify what is highly likely to be a drainage system which, has been previously mentioned, but has been cut through by what seems to be an antiquarian trench, 1800’s trench.

Today also saw the exciting appearance of the newly named trench cat which made an appearance near our trench.

Hopefully by the time that I am next able to go to site the trench group will have been able to move on to another task other than the removal of the topsoil which had been happening for the last five days of excavation.

S.S.Squires

The Roman Settlement we our excavating at the moment is attached to the Roman fort in Malton. The fort is located in the Orchard Field (1) in Malton and the Roman settlement is north-east to the fort (2).

The exact name of the Roman fort is unknown but has been given the name Derventio (4). Derventio is dated from 71 AD (5) which was 2090 years ago (from 2019). It was also in 71 AD that Romans conquered Northern England as part of the expansion of Britain under the orders of the first emperor of the Flavian dynasty (6). This matches with the building of the fort as Malton is in North England and a fort would be required to console their power in the area after the conquest occurred.

The Roman settlement which is next to the Roman fort is thought to have come about in order to serve the garrison who were positioned at the fort (7). However, the settlement could have also come about as the fort was a new centre of power which would have brought in trade for the garrison to survive off and this would have attracted locals as the trade would have been creating money and jobs which offered those in the local area a better life style. This would have therefore attracted more people to the area.

Derventio has been excavated in the pass and many of the finds from the site are in the hands of the Malton Museum (8). Some of these finds include iron tools, brooches, ceramic chimney and a, in my opinion a cute, copper-alloy duck (9) (all of which are pictured on the Malton Museum website).

The Roman settlement has also been previously excavated not only in the last three years by the University of York but also by antiquarian archaeologists, 1800s, as there is evidence of an antiquarian trench in one of the trenches which has been opened this year, 2019.

The site of the Roman fort and the settlement in Malton is a listed Scheduled Ancient Monument (10) which means the site is acknowledged as being important to the past and is being looked after for the site to be sustainable for the future generations.

S.S.Squires

Footnotes

(1), (2) and (10)- Historic England. (2019). Roman Fort. [Online]. Historic England, UK. Available at: https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1004885. [Accessed 28/04/19].

(3)- Google Maps. (2019). Roman Fort near Malton. [Online]. Google Maps, UK. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/roman+fort+near+Malton/@54.1365719,-0.791745,428m/data=!3m1!1e3. [Accessed 01/05/19].

(4), (8) and (9)- Malton Museum. (N/A). Roman Collection. [Online]. Malton Museum, North Yorkshire. Available at: https://www.maltonmuseum.co.uk/collection/roman-collection/. [Accessed 28/04/19].

(5) and (7)- Malton Castle Garden. (2015). History. [Online]. Malton Castle Garden, North Yorkshire. Available at: http://www.maltoncastlegarden.org.uk/history. [Accessed 28/04/19].

(6)- BBC History. (2014). Roman Britain. [Online]. BBC History, UK. Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/romanbritain_timeline_noflash.shtml#top. [Accessed 28/04/19].

The fourth day of excavation
Luckily today the weather was a lot better than the previous day and only rained for the last hour while the rest of the day was sunny and warm. The weather alone aided in the productivity of the team.

Today in our trench we carried on removing the topsoil systematically with trowels in which unveiled more of a different wall or what may look like the start of a drainage system.

This newly unveiled feature may be a wall or a drainage system, picture on the left. The picture shows a parallel set of two lines of stones near the edge of the trench which may have been a drainage system. If it is a drainage system it would have carried rain water or sewage away from the likely architectural structural in the trench down towards the river downslope. This system may have also aided in the prevention of structures or homes being flooded by rainwater every time it rained.

The work on the wall we found yesterday progressed and we were able to find out that the wall isn’t aligned with the roman road which goes through the roman settlement. This is unusual as the settlement is based around the fort and therefore the structures are usually based around the Roman road and therefore are usually parallel to said road. However, this misalignment may be due to its distance away from the roman road as its location is closer to the main road in Malton than the roman road. This could also suggest that if this structure was a building for a family living in the settlement they weren’t of high importance as they were further away from centre and weren’t near the road.

The roman road is located at the start of the gate between the roman fort and the field in which the excavation is occurring in and carries on underneath the building on the other side of the field.

The finds from our trench today didn’t hold much other than similar finds from the previous days. The only notable find from our trench was a metal nail which do to being under the topsoil and in a archaeological context had to have its exact location recorded on to GIS for post excavation work. As per the other days our trench also found small sherds of pottery and pieces of animal bones.

However another trench found a piece of pot with the name Malton inscribed onto but unfortunately was missing the N. This likely to be quite new in its age but is an interesting find due to it holding the name of the place of excavation. This find while interesting was not required to have its exact location recorded as it was found in the topsoil. This find may be a commemorative piece of pot for the local area which may have just broke and thrown away but would have held memories for the person that brought the piece originally.

Today our trench group also received a tour of the other trenches which also aided us in noticing the difference of alignment of the walls in our trench compared to the walls in trenches closer to the roman road as they are usually parallel to the road. Therefore the alignment of the wall we have in our trench could be due to the structure being further away from the centre of the settlement or may be due to the structure not being influential in the settlement.

The second week of excavation will hold the removal of the remaining topsoil by trowel and the cleaning of the features, the walls, found. This next week will be going to the further excavation of the trench.

S.S.Squires

Footnotes

(1)- Google Maps. (2019). Roman Fort near Malton. [Online]. Google Maps, UK. Available at: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/search/roman+fort+near+Malton/@54.1365719,-0.791745,428m/data=!3m1!1e3. [Accessed 01/05/19].

The third day of excavation

Whilst todays wheather was awful and included rain, hail and lightening the progress on the trench was quite a bit. We finished removing the topsoil with mattocks and shovels and moved on to removing the remaining topsoil with trowels, gently removing the topsoil.

During today we were also able to find the start of what might have been a wall. If this is a wall it would fit with the architecture found on either side of this trench. Therefore supporting the idea that our trench may hold the remains of what may be part of a Roman building. In order to understand what people may have worked or lived in this area more about the walls and the building it once was has to be learnt. However, it does look like there was definite occupation of this area and not just an empty space between two other architectural structures.

Unfortunately due to the weather and the removal of the topsoil the area soon became waterlogged and work slowed down. This is because rainfall can easily infiltrate the topsoil due to its composition but once its removed and archaeology is started to be revealed the water starts to form puddles making it harder to remove the remaining topsoil in the surrounding area.

One good thing from the rainfall is it aids in differentiating the topsoil from where there is colour change as topsoil usually becomes a darker colour when wet then when dry and this therefore aids in seeing the progress of its removal.

The finds from today still came from the topsoil but included building material, sherds of pottery, a couple of metal nails and small pieces of animal bones.

Small finds of building material further support the idea that there was once a home or workshop or other type of building in the same position of the trench and therefore show some form of occupation in this area of the settlement.

Hopefully tomorrow will hold better weather and allow us to continue with removing the remaining topsoil with trowels without puddles forming from the heavy rainfall.

S.S.Squires

Second day of excavation

As per yesterday we were carrying on with the task we were given, removing the turf and topsoil by the use of mattocks and shovels. Whilst this task was once again time consuming and hard work after today we are nearly ready to move on to removing the remaining topsoil to get down onto the archaeology.

Today as we progressed with the removal of the turf and the topsoil we found less finds in the topsoil. This may be due to the groups desire to remove the remaining turf in the trench and therefore wasn’t as focused as the previous day. However, we did find pieces of oyster shell along with similar types of small finds from yesterday.

Oyster shells also help show that from the time the oysters were eaten, unsure of the date, they had access to resources from the sea which from Malton is just under 19 miles away (1).

Today I learnt more about the trench that I am stationed in. The trench is part of a continous long trench divided into groups and in previous excavations architecture such as walls has been found on either side of this trench. Therefore it is possible our trench could also hold similar architecture.

The trench that we are stationed in then may very well have had part of a Roman building in once upon a time. This may have been a site of a family who lived in the settlement or may have been a work place in which a person earned money to support their family who lived in the settlement or in the local area.

The site grid was also being created today in order to help us plot any finds location and any other locations needed in the future. Therefore the finds can be plotted to see if there is a pattern and aid the interpretation of the site after excavation. Such as if there is a sudden increase in metal finds or metal cuttings it could suggest the area of the settlement was once the site of a metal workshop.

S.S.Squires

Footnotes

(1)- Distantias. (N/A). Nearest beach to Malton. [Online]. Distantias, UK. Available at: https://www.distantias.com/nearest-beach-to-malton-great_britain.htm. [Accessed 01/05/19].

The first day of excavation

My first day on excavation while entertaining was slow going due to the amount of work which had to be done. The trench our group was given hadn’t had its topsoil removed by machinery the previous week meaning the day was spent using mattocks, “versatile tool used for digging and chopping” (1), and shovels to remove the turf and topsoil.

Fortunately the trench we were given was one that had not been excavated before and therefore any find which we found from today or after today are finds which may not have been touched, used or seen from the time they were above ground.

While we were not immediately getting to the archaeology underneath the topsoil we did find some small finds in the topsoil. Some of the finds included small sherds of pottery, and small pieces of animal bones and as expected a piece of clay pipe.

Small sherds of pottery would have once made up pottery wares which would have been used for different things and would have been made by different people making each sherd once important to the person who created it and who used it. Some by have also made in the local area by locals or brought in from elsewhere.

Small animal bones may have been left there after the meat was taken off the bone and can help show what types of animals were around at the time and from the condition of the bone what occurred to the animal.

Pieces of clay pipe are quite usual in any field as they were used by the majority of population to smoke from the 16th century (2) onwards and were usually thrown onto fields when they broke by the workers of the land.

Once the trench has had its topsoil removed we will have the ability to excavate the trench to its full potential. Since this trench has never been excavated before we don’t know what we may find or not find making the experience that more exciting as we don’t known what exactly to expect.

Whilst, the start of our groups excavation may take some time to start fully we have found a lot more instead of what we would have found by using machinery to do the work. This is because we have to handle the topsoil ourselves and can spot finds whereas the use the digger cannot do this. However, the use of machinery to do the work is quicker and in excavations where time is extremely limited can help free up time.

S.S.Squires

Footnotes

(1)- Screwfix. (2019). Mattocks & Picks. [Online]. Screwfix, UK. Available at: https://www.screwfix.com/c/outdoor-gardening/mattocks-picks/cat840570. [Accessed 01/05/19].

(2)- Archaeology Advisory Service. (N/A). Identifying clay tobacco pipes. [Online]. Archaeology Advisory Service, West Yorkshire. Available at: https://www.wyjs.org.uk/media/1297/beginner-guide-to-clay-tobacco-pipes.pdf. [Accessed 01/05/19].

As we are excavating the roman settlement to the northeast of the roman fort in Malton it is highly likely to find artefacts which suggest there was a settlement here. Therefore, tiles and other building material is likely to be found which once made up the buildings which the people of the settlement once lived in.

Previous excavation has found tile-stamps (1), inscribed stones, painted plaster, pottery sherds, iron tools and other objects which are at Malton Museum (2). Therefore, I am excited for my first excavation to take place on a site which has to offer so much even if I might not find anything myself the site has a lot of history to teach and be learned about. Also from the finds previously found it suggests that the people who aided in the building of these buildings, the person who made the tile and the forger who used the iron tools likely lived and worked in the settlement and the fort.

However, as this excavation is part of a five-year study being done by the University of York in Malton and is on its fourth year the chances of finding anything which hasn’t been previously found in the previous years or by other archaeologist is limited. This is unlikely in trenches in places that have not be previously excavated on the site. Overall, the decision to excavate here may uncover new and previously missed artefacts or ideas on the settlement and therefore further its history.

S.S.Squires

Footnotes

1. Wright, R. P. (1978). Tile-Stamps of the Ninth Legion Found in Britain. Britannia, 9. [Online]. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/525953.pdf?ab_segments=0%2Fdefault-2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=search%3A428866e9d912f667fbc3a317a2c14d25. [Accessed 21/04/19]. pp. 379-382.
2. Malton Museum. (2018). Roman Collection. [Online]. Malton Museum, North Yorkshire. Available at: https://www.maltonmuseum.co.uk/collection/roman-collection/. [Accessed 21/04/19].