This blog entry discusses the third section of the large soil block to be excavated: for ease of identification and documentation I have called this area ‘Feature 3’. This label will be important in the future, after I have deconstructed the block and need to be able to keep track of the position of groups of artefacts within this large assemblage. This instalment discusses a relatively small area of the block, with the main focus resting not so much on the lorica plates present, but on the corroded remains of fittings attached to them.

As here we are chiefly looking at vague shapes, I felt that it was important for this entry to include both annotated and un-annotated versions of photographs, so readers can come to conclusions without my interference. The first photograph is an image of this third part overall, and the second photograph includes arrows and boxes indicating particular areas of interest examined in this entry. The third photograph has been included to give the reader an idea of the depth of the archaeological artefacts, the thickness of the iron plate, and an impression of the poor condition of the remains.

In order to introduce the ‘fittings’, a short note on the corrosion processes that have taken place in these blocks is most definitely necessary. The more I excavate and study this block the more I realise that the different components of the lorica segmentata have corroded in dissimilar ways. The exposed plate has a firm, dark magnetite surface, on top of which are localised areas of powdery, orange corrosion. I believe this second, more disruptive type of corrosion product (an iron oxide), are the remains of iron rivets and fittings.

I think there are two reasons for the fittings to have corroded in a different way to the iron plate: firstly, as a result of being in contact with the leather strap which would have run vertically the length of the inside of the cuirass- the release of acetic acid by the leather could have jumpstarted corrosion. Secondly, the fittings could have corroded more quickly than iron plate, given the greater amount of working and energy required to create there more complicated shapes. The fourth photograph I think illustrates my theory quite clearly: here we are looking at rivets, belonging to two overlapping plates (which could well be in this position because they were neighbouring plates on the cuirass when in use, and at the time of deposition), that have corroded more drastically than the plate. I believe, given their shape and positioning these were rivets and washers holding the leather straps, and we are looking at the interior side of the plate.

Working on the above theory, the fifth photograph shows a detail photograph of the area enclosed within the dashed red box and marked with a ‘1’ on the main annotated overview. I believe this lumpy feature, clearly different in colour and texture to the plate underneath, is again the remains of rivets and washers holding the internal leather straps in place. You can see here how an iron component can corrode in such a way as to increase in physical size: the resulting ‘object’ is larger than the item really was in antiquity.

The sixth and seventh photographs show another area of plate with corroded fittings (and in the corner, a copper alloy rivet).Here we can see a rectangular feature (outlined in the seventh photograph), which I believe is essentially iron corrosion, holding the shape of a now non-existent leather strap.

An x-ray will hopefully provide more information about these ephemeral features, though detecting areas of corroded and degraded material (which will have a low density) on a background of denser archaeological artefacts and burial deposit, could be difficult.

Am dymor braf. Dwi wrthi'n edrych 'nôl ar weithgareddau'r Haf. Am fod arddangosfa Creu Hanes yn archwilio cyfnod y Tuduriaid a'r Stiwartiaid, mi ges i gyfle i weithio gyda byddin fechan o haneswyr byw, gwirfoddolwyr a un, wel, byddin fechan!

Ein gwirfoddolwyr! Dimond jocan, dyma filwyr o'r Gymdeithas Ryfel Cartre o Loegr...

Fel groesawom ni bob math o bobl i'r safle: pibwyr, crwynydd, llawfeddyg, nyrsus, gwrachod hysbys, mwsgedwyr, arbenigwraig ar golur Tuduraidd, boneddiges oes Elizabeth a'i morwyn, seiri catapwlt, saethyddiaethwyr, pregethwyr, rebels, a phlant oedd yn diodde o'r Pla! Dyma'r tro cynta' i lawer ohonynt ymweld â ni - gobeithio y gwelwn ni nhw eto. Dwi wedi blino'n shwps, ond yn falch iawn ini gael gymaint o hwyl yn dysgu a gweithio gyda'n gilydd eleni.

Y Teiliwr Tuduraidd wrth ei gwaith

Mi fwynheuais i un sesiwn uwch y lleill i gyd - y Gegin Duduraidd. Gweithiais gyda Sally Pointer a Suzanne Churchill, haneswyr cymdeithasol, i ail-greu ryseitiau Tuduraidd ger y tân yn Hendre'r Ywydd Uchaf. Mi ges i fy mwydo'n dda iawn ond rhaid i fi gyfadde mod i'n falch ini beidio â thrio'r pwdin meipen y tro hwn.

Ma Sain Ffagan y siort o le ble y galli di weld prydferthwch yn y pethe rhyfedda, hyd yn oed yr hen bledren...

Sesiwn arall oedd yn uchafbwynt i'r tymor oedd y cyfle gefais i archwilio chwaraeon Tuduraidd gyda phobl ifanc o'r Almaen, Ffrainc, Gwlad Pwyl a Chymru. Roedd y sesiwn yn cael ei gyfieithu ar y pryd i dair iaith. Beth amser yn ôl, bues yn fyfyrwraig ieithoedd modern, felly roedd yn wych cael ymarfer yr rhan honno o'r ymennydd! Fe ges i sioc o weld cymaint yr oeddem ni'n gallu rhannu, er gwaetha'r bedair iaith oedd yn cael eu siarad yr un pryd! Yn anffodus, dyw fy sgiliau ymaflyd codwm ddim digon da i'w dangos yn y gwaith, ond yn lwcus, roedd y bêl pledren mochyn yn ddigon o bwnc llosg ymysg y bobl ifanc.

Ma Sain Ffagan y siort o le ble y galli di weld prydferthwch yn y pethe rhyfedda, hyd yn oed yr hen bledren...

Mae cymaint o sesiynau eraill yr hoffwn i sôn amdanynt - ond does dim llawer o amser i hel meddyliau. Heddiw, rydym ni'n dechrau'r broses eto, yn egino syniadau i lenwi ein dyddiaduron a'n penwythnosau trwy 2012 a 2013. Dwi wedi cael cwpwl o syniadau - mi gewn ni weld os fyddan nhw'n pasio'r prawf ac yn troi'n weithgareddau ar eich cyfer!

Just a short blog entry today, describing the completed excavation of another area of the soil block, and some of the interesting features that have cropped up.

This section of the block is composed of what appears to be two flat lorica plates, one lying at a 45 degree angle to the other. Note the length of the straight edge of plate; I believe that this plate will be one of the large plates that came across the middle of the cuirass. I have included annotations indicating small areas of potential importance, such as the corroded remains of fittings (see red arrows), which stand proud to the surface of the plates. The gap between the plates, which shows how damaged and broken the edges of the lorica set really are, can be seen in the second picture.

I have found another fragment of plate with a rolled edge (see third photograph), though the roll itself is much narrower in comparison with that exposed within the girth hoop (refer to previous blog entry). The fragment itself is also a little too small to detect any curvature or to easily extrapolate a larger shape, but could this fragment be part of a plate (the breast or backplate) that would have been in contact with the wearer’s neck? All comments and opinions regarding this little hypothesis are welcome.

I have included a macro shot of a small cylindrical item: whilst this may be physically unimpressive, I believe that this could be the iron pin that would have been drawn through a lobate hinge, holding the shoulder plates together.

As mentioned above, obvious fittings that are immediately identifiable still haven’t been found, and careful excavation has only managed to produce vague shapes of what is essentially metal corrosion. I have included in the last photograph a view of an area of probable lorica attachments and fittings, though only a very good quality x-ray will be able to make any sense of these lumpy features.

As a last aside, I thought I should provide a brief explanation for the condition of the buried lorica segmentata. Readers may have noticed how exposed finds lack the thick crusts of rust and voluminous corrosion products typical of a lot of archaeological iron objects: this is most likely because the thin iron plates corroded extremely quickly, with the iron leeching into the soil. Whilst this does mean that I will not have to spend hours removing powdery iron corrosion in order to reach a more certain surface on the iron, it also indicates that the remaining ‘object’ is more of a pseudomorph lying on top of the soil: this is why the ‘plate’ most often does not respond to the pull of a magnet. This level of deterioration will have implications for the eventual conservation treatment of the armour, as I may be unable to extract the iron plates (which have very little physical integrity), from the soil.