Sean went back to continue his spot beside the huge flags, I moved slightly over into an area within the massive flags that looked sure to have more floor waiting to be revealed. Sean quickly notched his second small find of the fortnight, something that might be dateable. He followed it up in the afternoon with another find, a nice decorative piece that I wish I could describe in more detail. Finds in my area were probably the most meager of the whole trip, as I reached the buildings north wall with about an hour to go. A little pottery and nails and, more disappointingly, no real sign of flagstones, but with some smaller dressed stones looked to have been laid as part of the floor in one area. Here's a final shot of our little piece of the trench, Sean's last day zone in blue, mine in orange:
And a final look of the large room in the building that is officially described as being "very late" (because the bath house stones in the floor means the bath house from which they came must have been non-functional by then), with a floor constructed from a combination of large flagstones possibly stolen from vicus building foundations, voussoir stones stolen from one of the bathhouses and dressed wall stones laid on end:
Digging ended half an hour early for Andy's summing up of progress over the two weeks; Justin Blake posted another of his excellent video blogs today that explains it much better than I can, and he covers the flagged area and the multi-voussoir zone so take a look there for the final summing up. Here's how the trench ended up, with the robber rubble all gone:
After some excellent fish and chips in Haltwhistle (from The Fryery) we managed to raise enough energy to make the short climb up Barcombe Hill. Some glorious views among the grasses and flowering heather, with a brisk wind hurrying through the Tyne Valley. Getting a little dark for photos, but here's the last shot before we headed back to the car:
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