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Despite the dreadful forecasts, the weather did not approach yesterday’s appalling misery, and when half of us deconstructed a layer of clay that was bursting with finds, the previous day’s suffering seemed worthwhile.

Katherine commenced the day of discoveries from the 2nd century with a tremendous Roman nail, something that is fairly common (I think all of us uncovered a few of them today), but this one enlivened the entire group. Fashioned from iron, Roman nails appear somewhat square shaped, and they are easily spotted because they are habitually encrusted with rusty-looking dirt. The metal alters the color of the soil, so rusty patches of earth often generate careful excavation.

My first find was a rather large section of bone that I initially believed to be part of an eye socket (as evidenced by the photo of me holding it to my eye), but which later turned out to be a portion of a pelvis. As the largest bone I had uncovered at that point, it thrilled me to no end, although the lead archaeologists may not have shared my sentiments. Ever since Roger, one of the PIs and the art expert, related his narrative of discovering a baby’s skeleton at the site, I have insisted that nothing less than a full baby skeleton will be my find. When today’s pelvis showed up, I insisted vociferously to Roger and Graeme, “I think I have a baby skeleton!” They disagreed, but finally agreed that perhaps it was a baby animal. Katherine and I amuse the archaeologists because we get excited over bulk finds and photograph nearly everything, often in ridiculous poses (we are both here on grants, so documenting our trips is essential.)

Almost simultaneously, as I hollered for everyone to admire my baby skeleton, I unearthed a piece of pottery, just a black shard, but also exhilarating in that it was the first pottery find of the day. Later, Abe, a soon-to-be college freshman here with his sister and mom, found a really great chunk of pottery, with a rim and design around the rim.

Everyone was turning up items and our finds tray quickly filled with an array of bones, pottery, shells, and nails. In quick succession, I found two Roman nails, a flat bone that seems to be a cow’s rib and a mandible. Katherine was pulling up bones left and right, and in an amazing stroke of luck found the front fraction of a sheep or goat’s mouth, complete with shiny white teeth. It is a bizarre object, and before we confirmed with Graeme and Roger, we imagined that it might be a hoof with toenails… not that those actually exist.

After lunch, we all found standard long bones, pottery shards and shells, but we each had our own special findings. Katherine turned up a knee and kneecap, plus a boar tusk, I located two teeth still attached to some skull (along with some extra random teeth… my favorite object to find… and a nail), Abe’s younger sister Mackie found a horn, and Abe had the most remarkable find of the day: a cow mandible with seven teeth still in it. It is outstanding (more for the workers than the archaeologists) and we all took our pictures with it. Katherine and I endeavored to convince Graeme to let Abe keep it, but he wasn’t having any of that.

At the end of the day, Katherine and I went out for pizza and a glass of wine, and at the end of the meal, our waiter feigned spilling cappuccino on me. I screamed, then we all laughed, and returned saying, “You think I shocked you? I will lift my apron and you take what is beneath it.” I said, “NO!” and turned my head, just as he flashed a stuffed penis and balls at me (which I missed thanks to my averted eyes, but Katherine caught the bizarre spectacle.)