Adam Tuffey, one of the archaeologists working at Sydney Gardens, answered questions by email about his work on the project.

How did you get involved with the Sydney Gardens Project?

A great majority of archaeological investigation in the UK, bar university or crowd funded digs, is undertaken professionally as a requirement of a condition on development, be that housing, infrastructure or improvements such as those being undertaken to Sydney Gardens.

Given the status of Bath as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and the Sydney Gardens as nationally important Georgian park (and one of the last remaining Georgian ‘pleasure grounds’ in the country) there was always going to be some sort of archaeological mitigation required — that’s where myself and L-P : Archaeology come in; we were brought in by a RPS Consulting to conduct the required work to ensure that any archaeological remains encountered are protected and recorded.

I myself have a number of years of experience excavating in the heart of Colchester: the Roman capital, so any site with potential Roman remains feels very much like home territory for me.

What does your work on site involve? How often are you there? Who do you work with?

Well, naturally we like getting our hands dirty, so on the ground we work closely with the builders as they undertake any form of groundworks. Whenever we get a hint of anything archaeologically interesting, we pause the excavations and investigate.

The preference is always to preserve archaeological remains in-situ, however, this is often not possible and therefore instead we thoroughly record those remains. This is called ‘preservation by record’ and includes cleaning or excavation of features such as backfilled pits, walls, ditches or postholes and retrieval of artefacts such as pottery, flint or glass. We often excavate features in such a way as to provide a cross section, and we take photographs, produce scaled drawings, take extensive notes and plan everything, either triangulated from existing buildings or walls, or using a GPS unit. Often archaeology once dug won’t be seen again for decades, if at all, so it’s important to have a good record, for me this is almost like providing a public service — every archaeologist wants to leave good work behind for later generations to build upon.

RPS Consulting manage the heritage and archaeological aspects of the work at Sydney Gardens and communicate with archaeological advisors to the BANES Local Authority, who in this case are South West Heritage. RPS have then contracted us at L — P to undertake the physical work on site. So we are on site whenever the construction company are digging in sensitive areas — in archaeology this is known as a ‘Watching Brief’.

What archaeological finds have been made?

So far we are only part way through the works, and have been undertaking a watching brief on some foundation trenches. In here we found a stone built wall, along with a potential flagstone floor, which would imply some sort of building — we uncovered a stone with a square niche cut into it, which suggests a structural component such as a wooden or stone post. Our ceramics specialist has taken a look at some of the pottery finds associated with this wall and assessed them to be Roman period pottery, included some sherds of a Roman mortaria — a coarse kitchen ware type of pottery- dating to between 150–200AD and imported from the Rhineland.

Archaeology is a collaborative effort — much in the way that medical doctors have sub-disciplines we have our own sub-disciplines and specialists. These specialists range from archaeologists who detect, such as geophysicists, who might use radar to look for anomalies underground, through field archaeologists like myself, who specialise in the collecting of data, finds and recording, we have post-ex specialists (post excavation) these individuals help analyse the objects and remains that we find.

These post-ex specialists range from Environmental archaeologists (who look at soil samples for seeds and pollen and a whole host of other markers) through to specialists in skeletal remains and more commonly ceramic (pottery) specialists or small finds specialists (who deal in the small specific objects such as brooches or coins).

It is likely that these remains are those of Roman structure, however, the extent of the groundworks were so limited that only a very tiny section of the total structure has been revealed. As such, RPS rightly made the decision to leave the walls undisturbed and protected under a timber construction so as not to be damaged by the concrete, thus preserving them for future generations of archaeologists.

There have been some later pits that might date to when the gardens themselves were first built in the 18th century, we will wait to get the finds from these pits assessed until later in the project.

What are the most interesting finds for you, personally?

For me archaeology ranges in size and scale — there are the big finds that give you your grand narrative history, the bits that confirm wars and the movements of people — things like Stonehenge or the Mary Rose for example, these are very interesting and obviously nationally important but for me it’s the smaller things, the bits that aren’t necessarily written in the history books, that have always fascinated me.

I think you would be hard pressed to find an archaeologist who didn’t get really excited at their first coin or Roman Brooch — I have been lucky enough to work on sites, with finds ranging from Roman spearheads and swords, through to Anglo Saxon Warrior graves and I’ve found Tudor coins whilst digging a mansion from the same period, but I love the personal things, the small objects that give you a bit of insight into the world, and when pieced together provide a great story about how everyday people lived.

So naturally I’m fascinated by skeletal remains — you can learn so much from them, but also things that give you a bit on insight as to how people lived — I found part of a Saimen-ware bowl, a kind of high status, high value pottery that often has detailed scenes of Roman gods, or animals on it, that was fascinating enough, but you could tell the owner of it really valued it as it had been broken and repaired with a strip of lead.

Are there any further stages of the project when you’re expecting interesting things to turn up?

This is a great question, we have found a lot of interesting stuff already, in that we have looked at a few areas that were marked on Victorian maps as a roman burials, and I don’t think we will revisit those areas however, archaeology has a habit of surprising you, and I am ever optimistic.