Bottom reached; Day seven

Another warm day, but just enough breeze to keep us from getting too hot. It was warm enough, however, to see the ice cream window open for business, just in time for tea break.

A fairly quiet day, no major finds, but lots of earth moved. I finished bottoming out my slice of the trench to the level just below the robber rubble, and then moved over to help Sean do the same in his. Just before tea break Kate had Sean move into Claire's trench, who was suffering in the heat and left to do some pot washing. While he mattocked away, at a level only just beginning to reach the rubble, I worked on final clear out of Sean's side of our trench. As we hit 4:15 and final clean up time I had the satisfaction of finishing the last of the open area; three larger stones that we had been leaving as possibly undisturbed will have to come out first thing tomorrow. Here's how it ended, with the three stones marked with white arrows:

The yellow arrowed stones at the far eastern edge of my trench seemed to mark the beginning of an unrobbed wall, but when Erin cleared more overburden away it became clear they are probably nothing. The eastern edge of the robbed area remains uncertain; but Erin is seeing some rubble, although not to the same depth Sean and I had. However, the red arrowhead stone is much deeper and may turn out to be something...

Some of the group spent the afternoon on pot-washing duty; Sean and I will start the day there. Forecast is for cooler weather, which will be a welcome relief from the heat of the last two days.

A small group has been assigned to the first robber trench, and are seeing some good floor flagstones, but in some places the robbing appears to have removed them:

Finally, it's Tuesday evening, which means Quiz Night at the Twice Brewed Inn! Lets see if a Vindolanda diggers team can take the prize...