Day two revolved mostly around the bracing bars of which there will be thirty: three for each pair of posts. They'll each end up looking a lot like a large tabula ansata. The trapezoid extensions on the ends will match the cut-outs in the posts, which will be cut on Thursday.

A few more impressions and a note: although the wall will look accurate, we're sadly lacking in cohort-sized manpower, so we have to take a few modern shortcuts.

Preparing the cross grain cut of the trapezoid extensions on the bracers. A circular saw makes that an easy task. Jurjen (left) and Melchior de Grood at work.

Jurjen and Melchior sawing a template for the bracers.


On Wednesday the top soil and some of the ditch will be dug with some serious equipment. Jurjen and I indicated the outline of the ditch with our reproduction dolabrae and and hoe. These are based on tools found on the site and which are now preserved in the Valkhof Museum, Nijmegen.

What will this weekend be a closed off area, is at the moment freely accessible from the neighbourhood. With so many tools and equipment on site, it's essential that someone camps on the site to keep an eye on things. After our last pre-festival committee meeting, some stayed behind to enjoy the campfire and company. In the end, Jurjen and I persevered through a wet and windy night.