Pete e
Elite Member
I did a deal online to sell a rifle to a guy, and while talking he mentioned he had some land which immediately made my ears !!!!! up.
Rather than ship the rifle and have a load of hassle with paper work, it was arranged I would take it over and have a days detecting as well.
I arrived Friday afternoon and the next morning, after sorting the rifle out, he took me over to a small building site where several Roman skeletons had been discovered. The archeologists had finished removing them previously, so the guy had gotten permission for me to detect over the spoil heaps and areas where the builders has moved spoil to level the ground ect.
Essentially, I would be detecting the areas that had already been disturbed. The soil was clay that was bone dry and rock hard, so was far from ideal..However as soon as I started detecting, the coins started to appear. Because of the dry conditions, nothing was deeper than six inches, so I think there would still be plenty left to find...
Towards the end of the day, I had a signal and unearthed a rock hard clay ball. It took me ages to get into the clay lump, in fact I ended up soaking it in water to soften it, but I am glad I did as it contained the nearly complete fibula in lovely condition, by far the best I have found so far...
So all in all a great day, and I finished with an open invitation to go back when the the rest of the field is developed..it's just a pity it's such a distance from where I live :-(
Edited to add the coins and Fibula brooch are Roman and I suspect will date to somewhere between about 54AD and 400AD..I am hoping to get a firmer date range when I get them identified ect. I suspect the key is Roman also, but not really sure at this point....
Rather than ship the rifle and have a load of hassle with paper work, it was arranged I would take it over and have a days detecting as well.
I arrived Friday afternoon and the next morning, after sorting the rifle out, he took me over to a small building site where several Roman skeletons had been discovered. The archeologists had finished removing them previously, so the guy had gotten permission for me to detect over the spoil heaps and areas where the builders has moved spoil to level the ground ect.
Essentially, I would be detecting the areas that had already been disturbed. The soil was clay that was bone dry and rock hard, so was far from ideal..However as soon as I started detecting, the coins started to appear. Because of the dry conditions, nothing was deeper than six inches, so I think there would still be plenty left to find...
Towards the end of the day, I had a signal and unearthed a rock hard clay ball. It took me ages to get into the clay lump, in fact I ended up soaking it in water to soften it, but I am glad I did as it contained the nearly complete fibula in lovely condition, by far the best I have found so far...
So all in all a great day, and I finished with an open invitation to go back when the the rest of the field is developed..it's just a pity it's such a distance from where I live :-(
Edited to add the coins and Fibula brooch are Roman and I suspect will date to somewhere between about 54AD and 400AD..I am hoping to get a firmer date range when I get them identified ect. I suspect the key is Roman also, but not really sure at this point....