We normally just remove the build up of material inside of features and record the sequence of deposits and datable materials within them. The N900's camera and big screen come in handy for recording these sequences so the paperwork can be done outside of the muddy features. It makes my job a lot easier.

The web browser is good for looking up dates and random facts regarding the various bits of rubbish we find, and gps is good for finding sites - trenches in remote fields generally not having addresses to easily navigate to.

The whole pastry brush and trowel thing is a bit of a myth, if we used those tools it would take another 2000 years to dig most things out. We normally use a mixture of 360 excavators, shovels and mattocks. Its quite a physically demanding job sometimes, and iv ruined a number of phones by cracking the screens in my pocket, or filling them with mud and water etc. The N900 is standing up really well so far and has taken a fair bit of hammer.

This time a local historical group wanted to relocate the actual shaft of the well and reconstruct it for display in the town of Bingham, just outside Nottingham. I think it was going to be reconstructed underground much like the original, rather than being a strange tower-thing... Iv no idea why really, but they paid for the work and seemed to be very excited to own a roman well.