Contributed by ANNA

Only having come to Llanmaes for a week, today is my final day – and the week ends as it began, with everyone rained off site. But we had fair weather through the middle of the week, and good progress was made in the trenches. A mixture of pre-Roman and Roman finds in Trench 1 suggests that the site was occupied over a long period, intersecting features indicating that the (potential) settlement was built and re-built over the same spot. There are many post-holes in Trench 1, making an Iron Age settlement likely, although its shape (round or rectangular) has not yet been determined.

I have spent the week working on a large post-hole which, unexpectedly, developed into a second post-hole, almost certainly of different date. As the fill continued further and further back below the top soil, it felt at times as though I would be chasing this feature endlessly across the trench – but it was a nice change to be taken by surprise by a feature, and exciting to realise that the two intersecting post-holes might tell us something about different periods of occupation on the site.

A week is not really long enough to spend on as rich a site as Llanmaes, where new possibilities seem to emerge every day. As well as the potential Iron Age settlement, there is also possible evidence of a furnace, a hearth and a Roman building: plenty for everyone to mull over whilst skulking in the cabins and barns, keeping an eye on the rain.

Contributed by EMILY

Hello Archaeology fans!

Llanmaes has given us an unexpectedly sunny day today, with our courageous team of archaeologists only getting rained on once, and the grand total of wet socks at a paltry 4 from the wet sieving brigade.

Today I have been working in a strip of trench one, and have consequently seen very little of the rest of the goings on in the site.

I can however assure you that trench one has seen enough excitement for the whole of Llanmaes with a host of interesting finds coming to light. Among these finds came a shard of what appears to be Roman glass, which Nick has speculated may have originated from a window pane, leading to a somewhat enthusiastic, and yet to be proved ‘We have a house here’. More on that another day perhaps.

Another exiting find was found by the intrepid archaeologist Andy, who braved the adversity of forgetting his glasses to bring us a beautiful bucket handle. In order to quell the pre-history/Roman debate this find created, pacifists among us have suggested that we are dealing with pre-historic peoples coexisting happily with Romans in a somewhat utopic society. Our current ‘special person’ on site, Ian, added that within this society they may have been consuming donkeys, based on a rather large bone found in the lower right hand side of the trench. This with many other things in this blog entry, is yet to be established as a fact.

For my part, myself and Rob have been uncovering some interesting features in the lower right corner of the trench. Rubble fill may prove to be a surface or a dump of some description, whilst finds from the area have included a Roman coin, Iron nails and a number of animal bones. Tomorrow we hope to expand outwards from the feature that may be a surface in hopes of discovering its true purpose, but for now we are left to speculate on a number of features throughout the trench and site.

Contributed by ABI

Well it’s been quite a break since the last blog so here is a round up recent events. People in Trench 1 are excavating features, for instance I excavated a (potential!) post hole yesterday. In Trench 2 there has been found a shoe (i.e. a lot of nails in the shape of a shoe). In Trench 3 the quest to discover the ditch is still going on (as far as I know). But today my mission has been on wet sieving. It is so we can analyse the environmental remains of the previous excavations such as the midden of last year.

It is a very wet and cold job but thankfully the weather has held out today. The tanks are currently being cleaned out by eager volunteers who, I expect, would wish to remain nameless. The work looks very disgusting as it leaves you with gloves of mud! A couple people have been doing bone washing as per normal. Bone washers from now on face the weather like the rest of us as the gazebo broke! They do have a radio though so they can’t moan that badly, no matter how bored they may be! There is a fly in this blue cabin with me and it is landing on all the cups, I think I’ll bring my own in tomorrow and keep it in my bag!

A team of archaeologists from the National Museum and students from Cardiff University will be investigating an archaeological site at Llanmaes in the Vale of Glamorgan over the next four weeks. Over the past four years excavations have concentrated on a large Prehistoric midden (or rubbish dump) which may have been the focus of ritual feasting activity in the Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age. This year the team are investigating a different part of the site where geophysics has revealed a large enclosure which may be of Prehistoric date. We hope to find out if it was in use at the same time as the midden. Different members of the team (and hopefully some visitors too) will be contributing their thoughts during the excavation.

Contributed by IAN

The clearing of topsoil has again being the order of the day in trench 1 (big trench) and progress has been made with the completion of this first but necessary phase of work in sight. We should be ready to move on in trench 1 by tomorrow morning break. There has also been an increase in the amount of prehistoric pottery being unearthed but is likely to be from the water wash from an earlier site that is located up hill from the current site. In trench 2 (L-Shaped trench) a ½ metre section is being excavated to help show the relationship of the different layers of archaeology to help determine how the rest of the trench should be excavated. Work also began today on clearing the topsoil of trench 3 (small trench) and a roman coin was found in the un-stratified material. Bone washing and wet sieving has again continued with steady progress. The weather has held out until the last half hour.