This is a picture of the 80th birthday cake that I made for my father, Roger Ayers. He and my mother, Lesley, have volunteered on Reading University’s Silchester dig every summer since 1999, living on site in their caravan. My father has dug every year, but my mother switched to the finds hut some years ago, where she is treasured for the neatness of her pot-marking. We have eaten the whole cake, except Roger from the trench and Lesley with her tray of finds, as my parents have a problem — do they eat each other or themselves? Whichever it is, they intend to be back again this summer.
Judy Rumbold
[email protected]
This edition of edible archaeology appeared in issue 278 of Current Archaeology.