Day 4 & back to the 17th century

We made slow progress today due to the wet weather. Sieving was not easy - wet clayey-soil [i.e. 'mud'..] and sieves do not go together although despite this, one of our volunteers Sean, found our first coin when sieving.

 

The coin is a French copper-alloy early-17th century 'double tournois'. It is hard to read the year but may be '1643' or '1618' - ?? You can check it out below.

 

 

This coin and the other finds from this lower garden/urban soil (fragment of North Devonshire ridge tile, small, bulbous clay pipe bowls) are all 17th century in date suggesting we are excavating the early post-plantation levels of the Bishop's Garden.

 

Excavating on site in the rain and mud with our first volunteers - Sean, Malcolm & Billy