Archeological survey

The archeologist, Ricard, came on 16 and 17 January 2016, and again on 2 February to search for any relevant artefacts. He was hoping for remains of a Roman temple or a Punic settlement. Or at the very least an old coin or a fragment of pottery. A JCB was used to take off the top layer of soil, down to bedrock, which in these parts is between 30 and 90 centimetres down.

He found no traces of any archeologically interesting remains. In fact he found nothing at all. Not even a beercap.

We chatted a lot, standing in the cold and windy weather while Andres operated the bulldozer. Wet soil made the work difficult, and in fact we had to abort on the second day mid-day because of too much mud.  When Andres and Ricard came back in February they used a smaller digger with treads rather than tyres, and just scooped the topsoil to the side of the trenches instead of  moving it to a heap to the side of the site.

The weather was awful, wet, windy and cold. It rained somewhere between 30 and 45 centimetres in December and early January, more than in any of the previous four years. The ground was sodden and the JCB had a hard time getting a grip.

Breaking ground. Morning of 12 January.
Antonio, the builder, stands on the left of the image,
then Bill, our architect, and finally Ricard, the archeologist.
Andres is operating the JCB. He kept warm.

Ricard in full archeological flow...

The footprint of the new house has been marked out in white chalk.
Ricard checks every inch for Roman remains.

What it looks like the next day. Had to abandon the survey.
It was finished in early February when the ground dried out a bit.