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‘Surprises from the Roman frontier’ published

By News, Published Articles

Scott Vance’s article on Turret 3a of Hadrian’s Wall is now out in the 400th edition of Current Archaeology.

In ‘Surprises from the Roman frontier: Excavating Hadrian’s Wall in urban Tyneside’ Scott details our investigations in the summer of 2021 which revealed not only the first turret to be uncovered along the Wall in over 40 years, but the largest example identified to date, together with other defensive features.

Click here to see Scott’s presentation to Current Archaeology Live! earlier this year

Pampisford Village Fete

By News, Outreach

Last month Tegan Able and Allie Spoletini attended the Pampisford Village Fete with an array of finds. They also took a handling collection, so that people could get up close and personal with the archaeology! Many intrigued people asked some great questions; from children studying Saxons at school, to adults who’d lived in the village all their lives. They had a lovely day and a found it a great opportunity to engage with the public.

Roman Darlington

By News

Following on from an excavation in 2018, PCA Durham archaeologists, alongside colleagues from the Newark and Warwick offices, have uncovered the continuation of this previously unknown but extensive Roman site. We have just finished the fieldwork so are in the early stages of post-excavation but already we have some amazing finds such as the ‘Darlington’ eagle, a likely iron lamp holder and several Roman coins!

The Darlington Eagle – An iron eagle with a copper alloy head. The head is similar to the bronze Silchester Eagle. The x-ray shows that the copper alloy head is on a stem which goes into the iron body. On cleaning there is a small patch of green enamel surviving in one eye.  The legs are damaged and there is no good join to the lamp holder but the width between the legs suggests that this object was mounted on it.

The iron mount – The iron mount has two prongs to which the eagle may once have been attached, although no join now survives.  The x-ray images of the eagle and mount have been stitched together by the archaeological consultant for the site (Nansi Rosenberg of Prospect Archaeology).

The Roman lamp holder- An iron lamp holder with riveted handle.

A well-preserved Roman silver coin – a Roman silver Siliqua of emperor Valentinian I (AD 364-375), minted in Antioch. It was recovered during a metal detecting survey on the site that was kindly undertaken by George and David Marley of Detectology UK Ltd.

Roman London West of the Walbrook

By News

Ireneo Grosso will be giving an online lecture to The City of London Archaeological Society on Friday, 19th May at 7pm. This is a hybrid event; if you are joining online, your link to join the lecture will be in your email confirmation. Use this form to register:

Between May and September 2022 an archaeological investigation was caried out on land at 35-39 Moorgate & 62-64 Coleman Street, City of London in advance of redevelopment of the site. Although truncated by modern basements, the archaeological works produced evidence for occupation during the Roman and post-medieval period. The site, on the western side of the Walbrook Valley, was probably occupied from the early Roman period as suggested by two early Roman boundary ditches and a substantial east-west orientated Roman road located alongside the southern boundary of the site.

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Another smaller north-south orientated road, located in the west-central part of the site, was bounded by clay and timber buildings, whilst in the north-west part of the site evidence for part of an in situ opus signinum floor was recorded. A later Roman shaft, also recorded in this area, produced a large assemblage of Roman painted plaster confirming the presence of a Roman masonry building in this part of the site.

The east-west orientated Roman road was later truncated by a series of large pits possibly during the late Roman period. Here evidence of industrial activity, in the form of glass production, was suggested by the substantial amount of Roman glass recovered, together with fragments of crucibles and of at least one structure which was interpreted as a furnace.

During the late 16th/early 17th century the western part of the site was developed with when at least two basemented buildings which truncated the upper part of the Roman horizon.

Mental Health Awareness Week 15-21 May 2023

By News

Anxiety is a natural emotion, and one that we all experience, but sometimes it can spiral out of control and become a mental health problem.

Numerous factors can trigger feelings of anxiety, such as the pressure of deadlines, relationship dynamics, embarking on a new job (or losing one), and significant life events. Financial concerns and the inability to meet basic needs, like heating or food, can also induce anxiety.

However, effective strategies exist for managing anxiety.

If you would like to discuss these with our qualified staff get in touch.

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Your mental health first aiders are:

Alistair Douglas: 07958 547 143 ADouglas@pre-construct.com

Caroline Edwards: 07718 492 321 CEdwards@pre-construct.com

Sian O’Neill: 07810 860 013 SO’Neill@pre-construct.com

Vicki Ridgeway: 07824 636 635 VRidgeway@pre-construct.com

Richard Krason: 07855 877 939 RKrason@pre-construct.com

Dave Havard: 07821 049 827 DHavard@pre-construct.com

Tom Learmonth: 07960 667 124 TLearmonth@pre-construct.com

Anxiety UK is a charity providing support if you have been diagnosed with an anxiety condition

Phone: 03444 775 774 (Monday to Friday, 09.30 to 22.00hrs; Saturday to Sunday, 10.00 – 18.00hrs)

The NHS provides a list of other useful helplines.

Spring London Archaeological Forum

By Conferences, News

The Spring London Archaeological Forum will take place in person and online at UCL Institute of Archaeology’s lecture theatre in Gordon Square on Monday 22nd May 2023 following the CBA London Annual General Meeting.

If you plan to come along in person, registration is required via Eventbrite here:

or contact Becky Wallower (becky.wallower@dial.pipex.com) by 12 noon on the 22nd May.

You can also sign up to attend online via Zoom on the Eventbrite site.

There will be an excellent line-up of presenters with interesting topics:

Kathy Davidson, supervisor at PCA, will discuss recent excavations at Newgate Street, an important Roman to post-medieval site largely excavated during the 1970s by the Department of Urban Archaeology that has been subject of further recent excavations. How has our understanding and analysis developed?

Ian Hogg is a Senior Archaeologist at Archaeology South-East within UCL. In his talk ‘Waste and Wasters: Industrial and domestic deposition at the Priory of St John, Clerkenwell’  he will discuss the findings from Benjamin Street which once lay within the outer precinct of the Hospitaller Priory. The high level of preservation allows a glimpse of both daily life at the Priory and industries taking place around it.

Roy Stephenson, well known in senior roles at Museum of London, will be talking on Netflix’s ‘The Dig’ and Rebecca Stott’s novel ‘Dark Earth’. His overview will concentrate on advice he’s provided to film producers and an author about archaeology and artefacts, and he’ll consider insights into how film companies operate that might be useful to museums.

It’s all free, of course, and we hope to see you at 6pm on the 22nd May – if you come along, you’ll be able to catch up with others when we adjourn to the pub afterwards.

TRAC 2023

By News

Of pots and people: Approaching skill, settlement, and early Roman rural society through pottery-making in the Lower Ouse Valley, Cambridgeshire, UK 

Eniko Hudak (PCA) and Adam Sutton (MOLA) will be speaking at this year’s TRAC at Exeter University on 28 April on their research into 40 early Roman (1st and 2nd century) kilns and tonnes of domestic Roman pottery. This nationally significant discovery was made ahead of the A14 Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme, close to Brampton and Godmanchester in Cambridgeshire near the River Great Ouse, where a number of Roman routes converged.

Photos courtesy of MOLA-Headland Infrastructure

A long and highly complex series of technological interactions characterises pottery-making in later Iron Age and early Roman southern Britain. Following the introduction of the potter’s wheel technology was used in diverse and highly socialised ways, becoming entangled with various novel styles of potting, and with other emerging technologies. Conventional narratives of early production sites of the decades after the Roman conquest of AD 43 tended to lean on economic factors and the direct impact of Roman conquest as interpretative frameworks, neglecting the study of social agency. This paper argues that we can do better.  The authors will present analysis of the ‘Lower Ouse Valley’ potting complex (Cambridgeshire, UK), characterising pottery-making through typological and archaeometric analyses. We will contextualise the ceramic chaîne opèratoire revealed by these analyses through a study of the structural remains of these first- and second-century AD pottery production sites, which were excavated as part of a single landscape-scale scheme of works. The result, we argue, is a rich understanding of how potting technology and technique continued to change several generations after the initial introduction of wheel technology, and even within communities who enthusiastically engaged with technological novelty. Key outcomes include the revelation of the heterogenous ways in which wheel technology was used even in the production of a ‘standardised’ repertoire; the identification of different forms of technical knowledge, exchanged on multiple scales; and a consideration of how social and economic narratives may be more fruitfully interwoven in the study of ancient technology.

Click here for the conference programme

Fine dining, quarrying, and manufacturing. Medieval & later landuse

By News

Dougie Killock will be giving a talk to COLAS this evening, April 21st at 7pm, about our excavation of a site in Aldgate, where we found archaeology dating from the Roman period, when the site was located close to the main road to Colchester, through to the late 19th century. The excavation recorded extensive evidence of gravel quarrying dating to the Roman and medieval periods. The finds recovered included high status imported ceramics and artefacts associated local manufacturing notably glass-making, sugar production and bell founding.

Click here to register

This photograph shows the base of a Valencian lustreware dish dated 1425–1475. The IHS monogram is a common Christian motif derived from the Greek spelling of Christ.