Roll up! Roll up! It's time to get your trowels dirty!!

Welcome peeps to the new blog from the Coventry and District Archaeological Society, or CADAS to save time!

I’ve blogged before, but for my own pleasure. This time it’s trying to let all you people out there know what’s happening archaeologically wise in Coventry.

We’ve gone from no projects last year, to a possible 3 this year. Our first outing wasn’t exactly a project, more like me volunteering to be teaching assistant. Let me explain.

The Herbert Art Gallery and Museum are running a summer course “Dig the Lunt”. Yes I’m talking about the Lunt Roman Fort. Ok …. Don’t get your hopes to high, it is only the car park at the moment. It’s the one area which hasn’t been dug and the course aims to take you through all the different disciplines of archaeology: de-turfing, bit of gardening, trowelling, finds processing, drawing, photography etc.

Training in the field

We’ve opened up 2 trenches and we’ve gone down about 10cm. In the smaller trench (trench 2) we’ve found slipware, Nuneaton Ware (similar to Tudor green) and 5 bits of Roman pottery…RESULT!!

Trench 2

Some of our Roman Finds

In the large trench (trench 1), we've come down to a brick surface. This was put down in the 1970s as hard core before the carpark was metalled. At our next session, we're going through the hardcore to see what lies beneath. 

Trench 1

Some of our other finds

It is a 4 day course, held on Saturdays, and days 1 and 2 have already come and gone. But you still have the opportunity to come along to the last 2 days. Just contact the Herbert and pay for 1 or both of the 2 remaining sessions. No experience necessary and any age is welcome, although anyone under 16 will need to be accompanied by a parent/guardian.

It’s great fun and even though archaeology is my passion, I'm still learning.