Shoot two navigation
The Roman re-enactment and experimental archaeology group, the Ermine Street Guard, have arrived to work on the reconstruction cameo for this shoot. You’re going to have to watch the programme to find out what they’re actually reconstructing, but we can give you some background on the soldiers themselves.
Leader of the group (both generally and as the head centurion), Chris Haines, smiles and broadcasts with his booming voice: ‘You’ve got something to film now we’re here.’ The ESG have a great reputation for professional displays and the equipment they make and use is of the highest quality.
The group is made up of re-enactors from across the country and has its base in Gloucestershire. Members travel to events all over Europe and have appeared on several Time Team programmes in the past.
They have brought with them all of the equipment to recreate a Roman camp including leather tents, cooking equipment and wooden stakes to make temporary barricades.
So what’s next? ‘At the moment we’re recording everything that we’ve found. Further down the road on an old excavation they found preserved organic material just below the level we’re on now. The plan is to finish recording and then excavate on down. Hopefully the conditions will be right to discover some well preserved organic finds.’
Meanwhile, over at Trench One, the mechanical digger is still in action with the human diggers. A neat little stone-lined drainage gully has been uncovered together with some other interesting features that unfortunately we can’t tell you about here.
So how has day two been? Well, as usual the halfway mark of the recording sees Time Team in the thick of action. New discoveries are coming through at a fair old rate and we are now poised to explore below the levels of previous work done in the area. The director is happy and the weather is holding out. Roll on day three.
