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Follow the archaeology action from on site as it happens
Over and out from Oxfordshire - and Dig Season 2026!
Our time at Earth Trust has come to an end for the year!
This season, we extended our main trench into two new areas to see if we could find out any more about this site’s Roman and earlier Iron Age story – and excitingly, we did!
We now have the full extent of our aisled hall-style building, which we think was a two-storey farmhouse, with living quarters upstairs and space for animals, crops and farming equipment below. It even seems to have borrowed some inspo from the Roman villas of the day, with a villa-style wing to the west.
Over in the northeast, we’ve also uncovered a lovely Iron Age fenceline, a ring ditch possibly associated with the early Iron Age smithy discovered previously, and a pit filled with stones that would’ve been heated up to boil water.
We’re building a really clear picture of what was happening here, with some fantastic finds along the way – from Iron Age pottery to Roman Samian ware and, naturally, many a square-headed Roman nail.
But just when we think we’ve got this site figured out, it throws another curveball – like the HUGE stone in Mary’s pit!
A peculiar pit for Halloween
Today’s our penultimate day at Earth Trust – and the second-to-last day of our 2026 field season!
In these last few days, we’re busy wrapping up the features we’ve been digging, and recording, recording, recording.
It’s also Halloween, and you bet we’re Halloweening as we do so!
Here’s Darcey in her very autumnal wizard’s hat, deep in our peculiar pit containing a giant stone. We’re still not sure why it’s there, which feels suitably mysterious for All Hallows’ Eve…
It's the pits (but we love a good mystery)
Here’s Mary, working on what has turned out to be a bit of a head-scratcher over in our northeastern extension of Trench 1.
This big pit contains a giant stone, and we’re not sure why it’s there!
We first thought the pit might date to the middle Iron Age, like a lot of our other finds here. But we’ve been uncovering Roman pottery from the bottom of it, which suggests it could be later.
The stone doesn’t seem to be local, and it’s far too big to lift, so it’s staying put while we work out how it ended up in the middle of the pit.
It’s just outside our Roman building, so could it be linked to the building, or to other activity happening here alongside the agricultural activity?
New Habitat Mission Launching Soon!
A new partnership with Natural England and the North & East Yorkshire Ecological Data Centre (NEYEDC) launches 23 November!
The chalk grasslands of the Yorkshire Wolds are among the country’s most important habitats for biodiversity. The NEYEDC collates, analyses and shares biodiversity information for North and East Yorkshire, to inform conservation and land management decisions. That includes protecting the Wolds’ remaining calcareous grasslands and helping other grasslands become species-rich. But nature recovery is only as good as the evidence behind it, and right now there is no accurate, up-to-date map of what survives. We’re going to change that!
Sign up for the mission to be ready for launch.
Roman Glass Jar Micro-excavation | What’s at the Bottom?
The final entry in the jar of dirt saga!
We’ve finally reached the bottom of the micro-excavation – and this is the last outing for our Roman glass jar before we hand it over to our glass expert.
There’s more bone at the bottom, but no grave goods. We were hoping for a coin to help us date it…but sadly no luck!
So this is where we leave it – from spotting bits of glass in the ground at Sacrewell, to Jasmine carefully removing the last of the soil. Now we’ll see what our glass expert can tell us.
Also, due to the accidental ASMR in this episode, Jasmine will be doing all due voiceovers from now on. (Jasmine doesn’t know this yet 😉)
Thanks to everyone who’s watched along – we honestly didn’t expect so many of you to become this invested in a jar of soil!
...And our last DigClub day of the season!
Today’s DigClub at Earth Trust is the last session of the 2026 season!
It’s been an action-packed day of cleaning back, hoeing, and even some posthole digging.
Ishan’s been on a roll with finding pottery rim sherds as he’s cleaned back very close to our western wall over in the northeastern extension of Trench 1.
Meanwhile, Alessa and Matthew have been doing a great job of cleaning back and hoeing, finding these two fab sherds of pottery. We especially love the wheel marks on Alessa’s piece!
Well done Brod!
And we couldn’t sign off DigCamp for the season without a shout-out to Brod and his eagle eyes, as he found this tiny coin in the spoil heap this morning!
We think it dates to the late 3rd century, but more investigation (and a good clean!) is required.
Many budding archaeologists tell us the dream for their day is to find a coin – and on this occasion, it actually happened!
A fitting finale for DigCamp!
Today’s DigCamps at Earth Trust are the last sessions of the 2026 season – and the finds have kept coming for our budding archaeologists!
This morning, Sawyer found this fab piece of pottery during cleaning back in Trench 1 – and this afternoon, Janna made not one but two metal discoveries in the spoil heap – a Roman nail and what could be one of the claws from an older plough rake.
More DigClub, more discoveries!
Day two of DigClub, and we’re back on site with a new group of budding archaeologists braving the elements in search of Roman and Iron Age discoveries.
Today’s young archaeologists have been finding lots of animal bone and sherds of pottery.
Here are two of today’s Venturers, Koru and Patsie, who spent their morning learning how to trowel and clean back, before moving onto mattocking in the afternoon.
We’ve packed a lot in today!
Shielding from the sun
Come rain or shine, good ol’ British weather likes to keep us on our toes. When the wet and wind aren’t keeping us from digging, sometimes the sun not only makes it difficult to see changes in the colour of the soil, but to take photos, too!
Here some of our field team are assisting Darcey to take photos of features in our northeastern extension, by forming a human shield!
We've been blown away (but not by an exciting find, we're afraid)
We managed to get another morning of digging in today – but it’s been blowing an absolute hooley this afternoon and the sideways rain has made conditions less than ideal.
So, while our older Venturers will be joining our Finds Crew in the Finds Room to process our latest finds, this afternoon our DigCampers will also be tucked up in the warm and dry for a finds handling and drawing session – and, if the weather eases up, heading out for a tour of site to get some context for some of the finds they’ve been examining and drawing!
Pivoting to a pop-up!
The rain’s back today – so a change of plan is required for the dig team!
How fab is this pop-up museum some of our wonderful Venturers have prepared in the Earth Lab for Earth Trust’s “Clumps Through Time” event? Just a few of some of our favourite finds from Earth Trust are on display here.
Do you recognise any?!
The sun's coming out - and so are the finds!
In our western extension of Trench 1, Maddie has found some tile!
Back at it!
After two days of heavy rain putting a (literal) dampener on proceedings, we’re back on site to continue week two of digging!
Rossett's Roman Villa on BBC Science Café!
Our dig at Rossett Roman Villa featured on BBC Science Café!
Check the story out on BBC Sounds below:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0032zj6
Roman Glass Jar Micro-excavation | What’s Hidden Inside?
To quote a courageous and distinguished adventurer, we’ve got a jar of dirt – so what did we do with it once it was out of the ground?
What’s inside it? And what can it tell us about how it was used and who used it, almost 2,000 years ago?
Part three of our enormous Roman glass vessel discovery from Sacrewell is here!
This video includes references to human remains. If you’d like to find out more about this vessel and its contents, watch on!
Rain, rain, go away...
As outdoor activities go, archaeology is an all-weather one. Bad weather is just as much a part of the deal as good weather!
But when conditions become truly terrible and pose a risk to the safety of our team or the archaeology, we have to call it a day and wait until it’s safe to continue.
Today was one of those days here at Earth Trust – so we made the most of the tools being down…
To kick off week two, this morning Site Director Nat talked today’s Venturers through our time digging here so far – as well as the earlier archaeological work that’s helped us to piece together the site’s history.
We then took a look at what goes into setting up an archaeological site, including the desk-based work we need to do before we can dig any holes. The digging may have stopped for now, but the learning continues!
Special find alert!
During today’s DigClub, Matthew was cleaning back part of a wall we started to investigate in Trench 1 last year when he found this…
Made from animal bone, we think it may be a token or gaming piece.
Matthew’s chuffed – and so are we – we like it so much, we’ve given it special find status!
Tomorrow we’ll be taking a break from digging – but we’ll be back on Tuesday!
Welcome DigClub!
Today we welcomed our first DigClubbers to this year’s dig at Earth Trust!
Our teen crew got stuck into the essentials of archaeological fieldwork, including learning how to use a trowel and clean back in the northeastern extension of Trench 1, and a wall we began to uncover last year.
They also got to grips with mattocking in our western extension, and explored parts of the site with a metal detector and pinpointer.
All in all, we fit a lot in today!
What have we been finding so far?
In short, lots! In the few days we’ve been here, we’ve already uncovered a range of finds that are helping us piece together what people might have eaten, used, built with and cooked with here – as well as what they left behind.
From animal teeth and bone to pottery, tile and other ceramic building material, oyster shells and charcoal, there’s plenty here to add colour to life here during the Iron Age and later Roman period.
