Diary

Our primary purpose in visiting Hector is to draw on his extensive knowledge and practical expertise to learn more about the manufacturing processes used to produce the iron artefacts from Glebe Field.As always, Hector didn’t disappoint. He exceeded our expectations, as we arrived, Zillah noticed that he had already lit the forge. After looking at various objects Hector offered to make replicas of

The 2026 dig has closed because wet, windy conditions make the ground muddy and risk damaging the archaeology. Post-excavation work continues: Zillah has conserved last week’s fragile barbed arrowhead by gently brush-cleaning it, coating it with Paraloid, and placing it in a protective case. The arrow head along with all metal finds are stored in dry boxes with silica gel and humidity strips; wrou

In typical archaeological-dig fashion, we were finishing for the day and tidying the trenches after an enjoyable day of changeable weather when someone shouted that Dave had uncovered a beautiful little barbed arrowhead. It was found in Trench TR48, about one metre from the stepped foundation - discussed in this diary on 4 September. Also, within a couple of metres where Zillah found a ‘needle bod

Siston, along with much of England and Wales, is in urgent need of rainfall, so the recent rain is very welcome. The turf and topsoil in the Glebe Fields have developed numerous cracks, some deeper and more extensive than any I have observed in 25 years. Although the wind and rain did not prevent work from continuing today, the heavy soil conditions made excavation more challenging. Work was event

Zillah has been working hard in Trench TR49, which was excavated to determine whether the structure in Trench TR47 continues northwards. To date, this seemed unlikely, as the wall appears to have been robbed out, with backfill and levelling deposits now occupying its former position.Persistence may, however, have paid off: a speculative 'cut' appears to be emerging along the eastern side of the wa

Another productive autumn day of excavation in the Glebe Field. Julie, Liza, and Pam made neat and tidy progress in Trench TR47, Context 09, uncovering an 11th- to 13th-century medieval layer east of the wall structure recorded in this diary 4 September. We are moderately confident that this layer represents the exterior of a possible building incorporating the section of wall previously discovere

We have been excavating the Glebe Field for over five years, often noting the absence of carved objects. In the past fortnight, however, we found two marked stones: a sandstone whetstone with A-shaped striations and a larger piece of red Carboniferous limestone bearing what may be an M or two inverted Vs. The latter resembles a Maria or witches’ mark, although this interpretation remains highly sp

The warm, dry autumn weather has continued. The southernmost trench on the mound, commonly known as Maryland because it was excavated jointly by the two Marys, has now been closed. Mary L has moved to the upper part of the field and reopened the combined evaluation trenches TR34 and TR41. This area was first opened in 2024 following the identification of a strong positive magnetometry response.Mar

There was a distinct Autumnal feel to this Friday's dig. Overcast, some light rain and windy, but it really was a pleasant time with eleven of us making good headway. We're coming to a close regarding digging the mound, and as a finale Mary K. found the largest piece of 'Samian Ware' from our site to date in the southern end of the mound. As you probably know this Romano British artefact has to be

The weather continues to be in our favour, just about perfect, mild with some sunshine and no persistent wind blowing. We have pushed on in Trench TR47 digging along parallel to the medieval wall structure. This has shown the wall is partly build on a natural bed of limestone but also rubble fill. The question is why has certain areas of the natural stone layers been removed and others left ,which

This Friday 4th September was a good dig day in the Glebe Field. The rain died out by 8.30am and apart from being blustery was a nice day. Firstly, Mary found two flints close together in Trench TR50, they are of similar colour and texture, the larger, according to Chris Butler's 'Prehistoric Flintwork' is possibly a Mesolithic flint core , the smaller may be a retouched microlith, the core is qui

A few weeks back a tooth was found looking suspiciously human amongst hundreds of animal teeth found over the years. Today we visited our brilliant and very helpful dentist Ismini Kokkaliari who confirmed the tooth shown in the images below is indeed a human molar. This then is an important and momentous discovery and gives another opportunity for more scientific diagnostics when we can afford it.

We were pleased to welcome Cardiff Archaeological Society (CAS) to Siston on Saturday15th August. They organised a guided tour, given by Julian Orbach an architectural historian, around St. Annes Church. After lunch we invited them to view the Glebe Field and to see the archaeological features including the stone lined pit, covered culverts and various dry stone walls. Presently we thing most of t

We welcomed new dig volunteer David Etheridge last Friday 7th August . David has much archaeological experience, a Bristol University Alumnus and his experience and company is greatly appreciated at the Glebe. He has started very well, uncovering a jug handle in TR49 last week on 7th August, which is a fabric we do not recognise as being found before in the Glebe. The second found this Friday 14th

The weather continues to be very warm, sunny and dry. The ground conditions are not great, being so hard, but it's so full of stone and rubble, it's possible to excavate with small hand picks to access slightly softer soil underneath. Lots of finds again today from trenches TR47 and TR50. Pam found another Green Glaze jug handle base, see photograph below. This will be at least the sixth or sevent

Just a note to make everyone aware of a new 3D Model of Trenches TR46 to TR 49 in the Drone Surveys section. Go to the 'Dig Info' drop down and click on 'drone surveys'.We now have at least two possibly postholes now visible in this combined trench.David

Continuing the Romano British theme, Zillah found another thumbnail fragment of Samian ware Friday 17th. I've attached a photograph below. This was uncovered amongst medieval finds so we are not necessarily in a Roman layer but this may bolster our theory of early Roman occupation. Small and abraded Samian ware fragment found in Trench TR47 Friday 17th July. David

It was another very warm and humid day in the Glebe Field Friday 17th July. We have had a few Romano British finds recently and it may be this that drew my eye to a piece of red sandstone found this Friday that clearly has two worked, rounded edges and an angle that reminded me of some RB roof tile I saw at a site near Westbury - sub - Mendip. I've posted here photos of the fragment and the whole

Another good weather dig day for Friday 3rd July with the gazebo and parasol for shade. Exciting news is we appear to have more wall foundations showing up in TR47 and TR46. We have a small section of wall at 90 degrees to the larger structure, which aligns roughly north to south . But also Pam uncovered another 800mm of this north to south structure. As with all the structure found within the Gle

Last Friday the 19th we were lucky enough to have Alex along to test out an infrared imaging drone. I have been very keen to use this method of surveying, which has been in play for many decades, but hopefully now with better software and the like we can use it more effectively. Below are a few images Alex captured. For me , there are north to south anomalies visible that have gone unnoticed to da

We had a nice weather day last Friday 19th June. The two main areas of interest, trenches TR 50 and combined trenches TR47 to 49 seem to carry on where they left off last week. Lots of finds from TR50 and very few from the TR 47 to 49. TR47 is full of demolition rubble and worth noting very few finds, this makes sense so long as the wall was pushed over, as it appears, and never touched again. Und

05/06/26 Another nice day digging in the Glebe Field with only a few rain showers first thing. Probably the most interesting finds today were the equestrian iron objects in the attached photograph. The nail is really key to dating both objects, plus plenty of medieval potsherds in the same context. Firstly the nail, according to Goodall's 'Ironwork in the Medieval Period' , is a trapezoidal head '

Last Friday 22nd May was another enjoyable day on site. The weather is warming up now and most of us are looking now for occasional shelter from the sun rather than the rain and strong winds. Trench TR50 has given us yet another beautiful small find, research suggests it may be a Victorian parasol handle with very intricate carving in bone ,ivory or the like material. Best guess at the moment is i

Hi everyone I've uploaded my latest dig report covering trenches TR45 and partly TR32 and TR11e. Particular interest for me were the copper alloy artefacts found either side of the ditch feature - the first identifiable ditch we've found so far. David

Alex has produced the latest 3D models of TR47-49 and TR50 and are now on this website. go to Drone Surveys in the drop down - DIG INFO. Fascinating to see the rubble and stone probably as it was left during the mid to late medieval period. Maybe another day's cleaning back soil then we'll be removing the rubble to possibly expose a wall structure but almost certainly plenty of medieval artefact.

We're alway looking for connections and alignments in the landscape and the artefacts, things that may point us the right direction about the past dwellers, their objects, time line and the story. This is purely hypothetical, but two Romano British copper alloy artefacts, a modified pendant coin and an armlet or bracelet are both commonly found deposited as grave goods and these two are on opposit

Artefacts were thin on the ground for todays dig. But I see the day's work as a big success as we expose the outer layers of the north to south mound we jokingly call the 'boat burial'. From previous evaluation trenches here we have found numerous artefacts and in TR46 west of TR47 the remains of a foundation wall. Once the remaining soil is removed and we have recorded the rubble and stone mound

I mentioned last week a couple of really interesting and quite beautiful small finds. The button, was found by metal detectorist Karen while checking the spoil heap, as part of the processes to maximise archaeological recovery, after removal of the turf and topsoil. The lead or possibly pewter artefact is stunning and has decoration on both sides, this was recovered again from the topsoil but this

Friday the 24th April proved to be an almost perfect day for digging in the Glebe Field. Bright and warm sunshine but the soil was quite hard. However, some amazing finds including some spoil heap finds after Karen went over with her metal detector. . . Zillah, in TR47, uncovered this amazing 'needle bodkin' post conquest arrowhead designed for armour piercing, but could be used for hunting?Pam an

With the prospect of the University of Bristol coming to our site, we thought it appropriate to update the original 2019 DBA including a summary and links to work carried out to date. I've attached a link to the DBA here and in Dig Info. - Reports David https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Pv016yvir6M6Iz63Py4CZuYenZjmh8_I/view?usp=drive_link

Further to meetings with Prof. Stuart Prior and Prof. Mark Gillings, we'd like to announce the University of Bristol will be running a series of schools in the Glebe Field this year 2026 and 2027. Stuart knows our site very well after visiting for the BBC's 'Digging for Britain' 2023. Initially this will be for teaching geophysical surveying including ground penetrating radar and later a summer di

Yesterday The brilliant Jen Muller completed some GIS work on the west side of the Glebe Field. It's based on the 1880 OS map with Lidar, the res. survey and an up to date trench plan. I've circled in yellow an area that proves the worth of GIS. It's now easy to see the stream has been diverted around an anomaly yet to be investigated. Don't you just love it when something comes together this way.

Hi everyone and a Happy New YearI've just posted a link to the latest Dig report no. 10 relating to Trench TR35 in 'Reports', as alway feed back is welcome and any issues relating to the link, I have tested it, but please let me know with of any problems. David

Sorry for the delay but I've finally gotten around to giving a little more understanding to the wall alignments I mentioned in the previous post. This could possibly point us in the direction of what the final phases of occupation looked like 700 years ago. Also an oblique view of the field last spring with trench positions marked on - but what a wonderful place to live! Credit: Alex Christofides

I've begun a new dig report focused on Trench TR35 and related structural elements from other trenches. Evidence suggests an alignment of walls in the final occupation phases, these structures are found in the uppermost stratigraphy on top of earlier buildings so at the moment it is assumed the last phase. As we expose more areas hopefully we will eventually make sense of the medieval or earlier o

Weather really has put an end to digging on site, so some SAG members came along with Zillah and I to Rockfield Studios near Monmouth. Very briefly Rockfield is a recording studio set up by brothers Kingsley and Charles Ward in the 1960s and has been hugely successful but in their own unique way. The Studios are analogue and the machinery is mostly from the 1970s and 80s. I keep an open mind and s

With less opportunity for digging due to rain and shorter days, our group are now visiting places connected with archaeology. Today we had a fantastic insight into the "backroom' work carried out by English Heritage. By this I mean the storage, recording and conservation of literally tens of thousands of artefacts big and small. The English Heritage staff were extremely helpful and eager to help u

Our blog has been a bit quiet because we’ve been away on a “busman’s holiday”! Pompeii, Ercolano (Herculaneum) and the fabulous National Archaeological Museum, Naples.Where do I start? Pompeii was too big and too busy. Ercolano is smaller, intimate and allows you to feel the lives of the people who lived and died there. And there are not enough superlatives to describe the Museum. Naples sits belo

Just a note that I've just posted a link to our latest dig report, if Viking, sorry Anglo Scandinavian, is your thing then take a look. I have inverted the image below so the scale is upside down but correct, but my personal thoughts are this the right way. More on these mounts in Report no.9 Zoomorphic? Viking mounts .David

We feel fairly confident with the dating of the section of wall and the paving to the west of the wall in TR46 for two reasons. Firstly the paved surface. Zillah has found a piece of horseshoe that appears to be Clark's Type 2 that is lobated and calkined. This can be dated to the 11th to late 12th century and was sealed underneath a stone in the path. This means the path was laid at or about the

We were back on site today and uncovered more of the wall structure in TR46. The wall is 800mm wide and at the moment we have about 2m. exposed. It appear to be built on a rough rubble foundation and importantly it aligns with a similar structure found 15m. to the west. This internal dimension is classic for a middle to low status post Saxo Norman dwelling but its early days to assume they may be

We had an extra days digging yesterday as Clair Young MP visited the site, we'll write about this separately. Mary K. , Pam and Julie dug along the east site of Trench TR46 and made a fantastic discovery. It's something we've been looking for for a while now and that thing is a possible purpose why the long triangular shaped mound is there! Up to yesterday the previous trenches over the mound have

With a wet and windy Friday in the forecast we dug Thursday and Friday morning until rain stopped digging. Progress has been made, the Marys did a nice job of making the sections in TR28 perpendicular- so it's possible to record them more accurately. We'll cover this over for the winter after Clair Young MP's visit on Wednesday. A large amount of animal bone was recovered from this work.TR46 is pr

We had some interesting small finds for the first time since August. Zillah found an almost completly intact wrought iron weed hook 11th to 13th century. Mary Lennox found part of an iron buckle almost certainly medieval in TR28. Also Mary and Zillah found an unusual nail each. The nails are possibly special 'fiddle key' horseshoe nails, which would give extra grip. The images don't really do them

A good day at the dig yesterday with just a handful of us including Steve and Pam ,Julie, Mary L. plus Zillah and I and a short visit from Karen. Mary carried on cleaning up the sections in TR28 and TR25 more on this later. But the most exciting find is the possibility of a pathway made up of flat stones placed tidily together found in the north west corner on TR46. It does seem to go on further n

We've just posted three new 3D trench models. Go to Drone Surveys to view them. Thanks Alex for the great photogrammetry .David

Luckily it was really good conditions for photography today with cloud cover at times so there was no shadow. Alex is preparing 3D models for three trenches and we'll post them as soon as they are ready. While we were with Alex we had a good tidy up and just sat back and enjoyed the beautiful Glebe Field , no wonder our ancestors have lived in this little sheltered patch of England for thousands o

Non-Stop Archaeology!What a busy week. Tuesday a display in the Church hall as part of the Heritage Open Days Festival, quite a few visitors with lots of questions.Church Hall display Wednesday an evening with Yate and District Archaeology Group and Andrew Buchanan talking about A Roman Villa Rustica. A site we visited and now we know a lot more about it.Thursday a SAG workshop with pottery expert

Dig Day 19th September 2021 Another productive day in the Glebe Field. Ten of us on site and the interest it creates was ably demonstrated by Mo and Aaron both digging in TR46. Mo and Aaron in TR46TR 46 is our newest trench and is over the northern end of the mound. Finds, by the standards of the Glebe Field, are a bit thin now but that may well change next week as we get further into the Medieval

Against all expectations last Friday 5th September the general consensus was the ground was now soft enough for a new evaluation trench across the mound possibly forming part of an inner enclosure . The site chosen is over the north end of the large high resistance anomaly as can be seen on the image below. Its position will give a good contrast between high and lower resistance and it is our cont

We had the most interesting and worthwhile couple of days with brilliant people. I won't try to take you through the whole course, but we started with identifying the elements of our own skeletons and worked through to rebuilding the structure of animals. See the images below. The recording process was far more complicated than rebuilding a skeleton as we were trying to identify elements from some

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay in posting this entry - Ziilah and I have been on an animal bone recognition and recording course near Cardiff for a few days, more on this later. But first, what a fantastic evening last Saturday and a special thank you to Melissa and Charlie for coming up with the idea, secondly for allowing the use of the Rectory and grounds and finally for offering to donate

Looking at some of the smaller potsherds found in TR39, it appears we have a tiny piece of Roman Samian ware but also what is possible a piece of Oxford ware. Last year Zillah found the base pictured below in TR31, which is closer to the main trench on the platform. Samian ware, mass produced in Gaul was prevalent during the first two and half centuries of Roman Britain but the clay supply was exh

That didn’t go to plan then. We visited Langport, Somerset today with the intention of having a tour around a recently discovered Roman Villa. We drove along the Somerton Road towards the site and were suddenly aware of double-parked cars everywhere and people wearing wellies all heading in the same direction. We saw the site entrance and a sign -overflow car park, great. Sadly, though the queue w

Not many of us digging yesterday Catherine, Julie, Mary L and me. Chatting and digging is good for the soul and it's amazing what you can find out.I was telling Julie and Mary that David and I are going on a two day Zooarchaeology course (more to follow) and would be taking some of our huge bone collection including some of our bone tools and objects.I showed Julie a photo of one of our star finds

Just a short discussion on what is probably one of our most early and rare finds. Back in April Catherine found a very crudely made potsherd in TR39 with oolitic inclusions. Experts have seen the object and agree it's either Iron Age or Early Saxon. Had it definitely been a base or rim section it would have been more diagnostic but the most recent view is it is Early or Pagan Saxon. If it is Saxon

Another happy Friday in the Glebe Field. We are digging a ditch in trench 45 and it is full of green glazed ware. We can identify some of it as Ham Green ware from the north side of Bristol 1100 - 1250 and Laverstock ware from the Salisbury area 11th - 14th century.Why so much high status table ware? I can only think that at some point we had a dinning table with jugs full of wine and ale along wi

Despite the hot weather last Friday Julie pushed on with the sondage in Trench 41/34 and established the layer thickness of the ochre and charcoal is 100mm in depth. Under this seem to be an olive green natural very sticky clay yet another variation of natural in the relatively small Glebe Field. There was no shortage of large pieces of ochre presumably on site for processing.David

Catherine and Julie have contributed to removing soil in TR24 on the north side of the brook ,which reinforced the bank and possibly formed part of the inner enclosure that is seen on the resistivity survey. This is turning out to be an interesting area to dig ,especially as it's nice and shady. David

A hot day in the Glebe field but some good and interesting finds including a handle stub and rim potsherd found in the TR45 ditch feature. It is unusual as the green glaze finish is like sandpaper and the fabric lighter in weight than the usual Ham Green so the jury is out. More to come later.David

Julie had a good day last Friday in Trench 34/41 , exposing more of the red ochre and charcoal deposits. On reflection this is not looking hearth like due to the naturally coloured clay and soil the ochre and charcoal are mixed with. However, we may just not have found the seat of the hearth, the magnetometry response shows a larger area not yet explored. So it was decided to take a sondage down t

Entry by Zillah Another enjoyable Friday digging in the Glebe field. Friday is St Annes bellringing morning and we have to raise our voices over the pealing. It was quite noisy yesterday with a neighbour hedge cutting and a delivery wagon reversing down the lane. It is a special place when all is quiet and the birds are singing and I imagine a utopian Saxon village with folk quietly going about th

We had a very productive day in Trench 45 last Friday 1st August. The Marys, Pam and Zillah all spent time exposing a ditch about 1 metre wide and about 400mm deep. At the moment the purpose of the ditch is unclear but it is bottoming out on an undisturbed natural limestone layer. Below is a west to east view of the ditch, the image doesn't make it easy to define but the redeposited fill is darker

Avon Archaeological Society came over today to visit our site in Siston. David gave an overview of our finds and what we know about the site, who we think lived there and how it has developed over the ages. When everyone had finished looking at the dig site it was time for Stephen to give a talk about our local Church St Annes, before going up to Siston Court for a brief history of the building.

The Soldino Coin: A Silver Thread Through Venetian Commerce The Soldino was a small silver coin first minted in Venice in 1332 under the rule of Doge Francesco Dandolo. Its name derives from "soldo," which originally meant "solidus," the name of a late Roman gold coin. Over time, the term came to signify a variety of silver and copper denominations used across Italy. The Soldino was a lightweight

While opening up a new trench we discovered this Roman coin called the Valens Winged Victory.The Valens "Winged Victory" coin refers to a Roman coin featuring Emperor Valens (reigned AD 364–378), typically on the obverse, and a personification of Victory with wings on the reverse. These coins were part of the late Roman imperial coinage, produced during a time of significant military and political

The Siston Dig is now on IPlayer - Click on the link below, our segment is 37 minutes in. Digging for Britain - Series 11: 3. A Norman Panic Room and a Mesolithic Fish Trap - BBC iPlayer

Today we uncovered a small hooked tag or Saxon bronze fastener. See attached examples.

We uncovered a late Roman Plate Buckle, below is the buckle before cleaning. The following pictures show the Buckle after careful cleaning and preservation. Examples of Buckles of the same type. Due to the amount of corrosion, we have decided not to open out the Buckle.

Today we have found part of what we think is a Medieval Padlock. You can see a sprung piece of metal connected to the base which would lock the shaft in place inside a housing. To open the lock, a Key would be used to compress the sprung metal allowing the shaft to slide out of the lock housing.l k

Today we found an Iron Buckle and an Iron Pommel. Perhaps from a knife or a mount. We think it might have been tinned making it shine. Either way these are a first for us in the site.

The hook fastener is not in the best condition but is an every day item that someone used.

Anglo Scandinavian mounts and possible book cover or equestrian decoration copper alloy artifact.

Today we found another Fibula Brooch, a copper annular brooch and also a buckle and plate A copper Annular BroochBrooch with broken pinBuckle and Plate

A special thanks to Alex who did this fantastic 3D model of the main excavation at the dig site. Use your mouse to rotate the image.https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/siston-main-excavation-29-08-23-model-7fcaca0916f94cb7b0ee39a0abeb7dc1

A good day filming Digging for Britain with their production crew. We had some great finds during the day and took the opportunity as the site was clean and tidy to do a drone survey. Results of the survey to follow. We look forward to seeing the episode early in the New Year.

We had a team of eight people today, digging, sifting and cleaning finds, followed by a big tidy up of the site. We had a so many finds in three hours we had to stop, as there was just too much to cope with. In other news SAG has been approached by a researcher for Digging For Britain. They are very keen on filming our dig, and helping us to research the history of the site and surrounding area. F

New trenches have been opened and digging has commenced. We have had some lovely finds over the Bank Holiday weekend, now we have to work out what they are, bag and tag them, then add them to our database.

Pottery Identification - Peterborough ArchaeologyGloucester pottery fabric type series (potsherd.net)

Today we had a Drone Survey of the work carried out this summer, as our digging for this year is coming to an end. Here are some excellent aerial images of the site including a 3D model.Trenches 07,11 & 133D Model