In just over two weeks we’ll be heading down to begin our longest and most important excavation. For all of August we’ll be digging the villa!

We’ve got a team of students and local volunteers who are all really excited to take part in what will prove to be a fascinating four weeks’ digging.

In Newcastle there are lots of preparations afoot. Andy has been hiring fencing, James is busy organising all sorts of things and looking forward to seeing the third years (including Lufton veterans) graduating on Monday.

This year we intend to dig two trenches. These are to precisely locate where the villa is and assess its state of preservation. We also hope to use new scientific techniques to study the final, so-called squatting phases of activity.

Just to whet your appetites here’s the plan of the villa showing where we propose to locate our trenches.

Proposed trenches