I dreamt about coins and pots last night, unsurprisingly. Anna and I were on site just after 8am and began the exciting part of lifting the fragments of inverted vessel before Alan started on the main part of the pot. The fabric is black burnished ware and it really is a pot of beauty. Alan is half-sectioning the pot and taking the coins out in layers. As the coins were coming out (it felt very strange and un-archaeological to be taking handfuls of coins and dumping them in bags!) Anna and I were checking which emperors we had – Gallienus, Claudius II, Tacitus, Maximian, Probus (there seemed a lot of him), but as yet no Carausius…

Naomi and her husband Simon called by (having had to miss the first day at a conference), and Simon swiftly pointed out our missing piece of pot from yesterday was actually not missing at all, it was just that a fragment had slipped downwards. Relief all round, especially from Alan who had been feeling very bad about losing a piece!

Steve Minnitt from the Somerset County Museum spent most of the afternoon with us, as well as the landowner’s brother-in-law.

My hands are stained brown/ green from the copper-infused clayey soil. While Anna and Alan took turns excavating the coins I bagged up the different layers and stored them in archive boxes. Each finds bag took maybe between 500 and 800 coins. The boxes could not hold more than four bags for fear of spinal damage! Dave and I spent a while guestimating how many coins per bag multiplied by the number of boxes but soon gave up. How could we possibly guess?

At the end of Day 2 it is clear there will be a Day 3 tomorrow. It is Saturday tomorrow and Anna and I are due to help the Avon & Gloucs FLO at a rally near Bristol on Sunday. We really hope the hoard will be out by then!