Twelve metres of buried time.

One trench, five layers, five finds. Grab the shovel: every turn of the wheel digs a little deeper.

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Topsoil, found at 0.3 m

Struck around 1270 AD

Lost from a purse on the old market road. Small enough to vanish in one step, tough enough to wait seven centuries.

In the groundabout 750 years

Loam, found at 1.0 m

Roman, around 150 AD

It came out of the ground in six pieces. Every one was there, so the jar went back together on site.

In the groundabout 1,870 years

Clay, found at 2.3 m

Around 2500 BC

Knapped from a single nodule of flint, one flake at a time. The edge can still cut a sheet of paper.

In the groundabout 4,500 years

Gravel, found at 4.5 m

Early Cretaceous

The coiled shell of a sea creature, washed into an old river bed long after the sea had gone.

Ageabout 130 million years

Bedrock, found at 8.4 m

Late Jurassic

As long as a bus and gentle as a cow. The bones lay close together, so the skeleton could stand again.

Ageabout 150 million years