ROMANS ON ANCIENT DARTMOOR
An auspicious start to an Autumn day dig - magical mists rolling in low valleys with the iconic rocky tors of Dartmoor rising above. A huge complete rainbow smiled on me as I unpacked my gear amongst rows of cars of men in camo, comparing plans for the day. The organiser DCDD had put together a new permission just outside Lyford, a place (on paper) so rich in history it was seemingly impossible not to come home with something decent. An air of excitement all around the muddy farmyard, and fragrance of leaf mold and sheep dung. A mass exodus to the lower field on starting - bordered on one side by the River Lyd, and a lane that turns into Silver Street. Could this be close to the site of the Saxon coin mint that was once sited near here? Two castles - one imposing on the skyline - feature in this little village, positioned in a long wooded valley.
Within an hour, the morning chill had gone and coats were being removed. So far though, no calls of good finds. I had my first signal - a toasted Georgian copper, its destroyed green and red surface without trace of a monarch. Talk of an old track, that runs down through the field bordering the river. I head in that direction and soon after pull up an oxidised lead item, sculpted into an eclipse shape, with a circular indent to one side, and a chamfered edge. I believe it to be a lead palm guard, used in the 17th to 19th centuries by leather-workers to prevent potentially fatal wounds (before Tetanus injections were a thing..)
After a few hours of not much, I moved into a different field. A lot of people scratching their heads at why not more is coming out of the soil in this richly historical area.. Another toasted coin, and a tea break in Autumn sunshine under a gorse bush in flower, overlooking the high tors where Bronze Age burial tombs have been discovered. I get back to the search - the digging here is tough, more stones than soil, dark grey like the tors. It makes me think about the harsh working lives of people working the land by hand centuries ago.
A strong tone at the same kind of level as the previous toasted coins. I’m getting to know a new machine, the XP DEUS II - this is my first full day working with it, and its like listening to a foreign language. 82 - high number (the read goes to 100) and the visual XY graph on the little screen at my wrist shows its worth digging. Its directly underneath a huge slop of sheep dung. I fold that away with my shovel, and get digging. What is revealed is a greenish coloured object, circular with a nodule in the centre. I pull it out of the hole and rub it down. It’s a heavy weight object and I note the primitive shape, not truly circular. Its material seems to be bronze or certainly some kind of copper alloy - the green patina is a giveaway. No-one knows what it is - so its one for the home research pile.
The rainbow gives way to a heavy rain shower, and we decide to call it a day. Back home, I find out that I’ve found my first Roman artefact! Its a locking pin, used as a fixing in a wooden box or casket. Its such a heavy duty item, it must have been a large old box. The pin may be damaged. Lost by Romans travelling through the land, transporting heavy goods by cart, this heavy duty bit of hardware is an everyday object that connects me to people here in Devon 2000 years ago. That blows my mind, holding this object in my hand in 2023.
