Food and friends and wine and hot baths

[shewhomust]

We've been having a pleasantly sociable time, though that's pretty much all I have to say about it. D.'s visit last weekend, lunch with friends on Wednesday, friends to dinner on Thursday - two couples, thanks to one of those last minute inspirations (why don't we invite --- as well?) which don't always work but did on this occasion. And tomorrow another house guest, someone we used to share a flat with in London and haven't seen since - so obviously I'm a touch nervous about it.

This afternoon we slipped out between showers and visited Binchester Roman fort - not a lot to see compared to the Wall forts, though in its day it was extensive: the largest fort, they said, between York and Edinburgh. Most of it is unexcavated, though work continues, and the portion that has been excavated includes a remarkably well preserved bath house. Some of the tiles have the letters NCON, which apparently identifies the troops stationed there:

This was lying on a table in the museum / activity area - can it really be an actual Roman tile?

And home via Tesco's, if not exactly under the arch of the rainbow then past both stubs of its broken bow.

Comments

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Go mudlarking on the Thames foreshore some time-- that is, use one of the stairs down to the beach at low tide-- and you can find stuff going back to the Roman era there that no one cares whether you keep. I have a whole bunch, myself. Fun stuff!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I saw an interesting exhibit at the Tate Modern (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/dion-tate-thames-dig-t07669) of finds from the Thames foreshore - clay pipes and mobile phones all neatly arranged in a magnificent cabinet - though I was a little uneasy to see it treated as art rather than archaeology.

That said, I have a fine collection of fragments of blue-and-white pottery, collected from ploughed fields while walking...

[handworn.livejournal.com]

Mudlarking is more or less like fieldwalking. There's no stratigraphy preserved for either one, and people simply dumped their trash in the river at random, meaning there's nothing to be learned from context. The Museum of London maintains a recording database for mudlarkers-- you can bring your better finds there and they'll photograph them, measure them and record any marks-- but that's as much as British officialdom thinks needs to be done. If there were something truly astounding, like a Roman helmet or something, that might be different, but things like that near the surface have all been found by metal detectorists, anyway.

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, that would be so COOL to do that mudlarking thing. I wish I'd known about it when I was spending my weekends in London. I wonder if it's worth doing in the wintertime, or if it's just too wet and cold and miserable?

::plans forming::

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

And muddy. Don't forget muddy!

You do it, and tell me about it, how's that for a plan?

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

I've just presented the plan to J. He is still laughing.

Hrm.