Page 42 - TVH 2000 Anniversary Shipwreck Project

The large spar exposed during previous excavations was recovered, this had a length of 4670mm and circumference of 640mm but included 11 holes, not all of which penetrated the spar. The condition is good with the exception of the end that had been deeply buried in the sandbank at the northwest corner of the trench, as this appeared gribbled. Stratigraphically it is in a backfilled area and cannot be proven to be wreck derived by location. Miscellaneous fragments included a slat, possibly the remains of a box (A0026, A0056 and A0040) and a wooden block (A0054). Environmental A number of samples were taken for analysis (A0004, A0033 and A0034) and a substance resembling yellow amber was collected (A0062). Discrete concretions were recovered, these included some (A0031, A0032) directly below CP2 and possibly a blade fragment (A0066). The excavation of a corroded scaffold screw with a 5mm coating of concretion over all of it provides an interesting indicator of the speed of concretion build up in Trench 1 as the screw was deposited between 1989 and 1993. Many items are concreted in a grey / black granular concretion suggestive of gunpowder, analysis may confirm this hypothesis. - 36 -