August 2005
After a two week break, the weather was fine and good progress was made in the last two weeks of august. Evidence of a wall has now been clearly defined between trenches 7 and 8, which is probably the rear wall of the corridor on the south side of the villa. Hopefully a parallel wall will soon be revealed at the other end of the trench to confirm that it is a corridor.
Rear wall of corridor.
The south western extension to trench 7 is almost complete and has revealed a variety of contexts containing different types of building material which appear to be part of a demolition layer. Areas of large flints, floor and roof tiles, chalk and mortar have been found together with over 200 tesserae. No structural features have been found so we can be reasonably certain that this area is outside the end of the villa. The initial abundance of finds has unfortunately dried up though there is an interesting area still being excavated containing a large amount of decorated wall plaster.
Floor and roof tiles from trench 7 south western extension.
There are now only 2 months left in the digging season during which the focus will be on the back of the villa around the north western extension to trench 7 and possibly some more smaller trenches to explore the boundaries further.
If you would like get involved in the dig please contact us.