Join us for a Family Fun Day at Winchester’s Friarsgate Park on 29 August 10am – 2pm. This event offers a range of activities for all ages, inviting families to uncover Winchester’s hidden history and enjoy the newly created outdoor space. Get hands-on with washing archaeological finds, handle real artefacts, and test your skills with challenges based on previous digs.
Meet the archaeologists, take guided tours of the community excavation, and participate in pottery workshops with Design Junction. Don’t miss the chance to create pottery drawings and take them home. The event is free to attend, so just turn up on the day at Friarsgate Park, on the site of the former medical centre behind the bus station (what3words: craft.districts.groom).
Event Details:
Date: 29 August 2024
Time: 10am – 2pm
Location: Friarsgate Park (former Friarsgate Medical Centre, behind the bus station; what3words: craft.districts.groom)
Dougie Killock will be giving an exciting talk to the Enfield Archaeological Society on Friday, 13th September at Jubilee Hall, Parsonage Lane, Enfield (click for map). Doors will open at 7pm, and entry costs just £1.50. In his presentation, Dougie will reveal the fascinating results of an extensive archaeological investigation at 12-20 Osborn Street E1 6TD, now the site of the Hampton By Hilton London City Hotel. This excavation uncovered an extraordinary archaeological sequence, with evidence ranging from the Roman period right through to the 20th century.
An initial evaluation conducted in 2021 revealed multiple structures dating back to the 17th century, alongside a variety of pits and ditches from the medieval and post-medieval periods. Even more intriguing was the discovery of Roman pottery and other artefacts, indicating long-term occupation and activity at the site. Excavations began in November of that year and uncovered nine distinct phases of activity, providing a rare glimpse into the evolution of this part of London.
From natural sand and gravel deposits, Roman roadside features, tantalising hints suggesting Saxon regeneration of the city, to medieval quarrying pits, Tudor buildings, and industrial structures such as a 19th-century sugar refinery, this site encompasses a microcosm of Whitechapel’s urban development. The excavation revealed continuous use of the land for residential and industrial purposes, offering remarkable insights into how the area has transformed over the centuries.
Dougie’s talk promises to provide a deeper understanding of Whitechapel’s rich and layered history. Don’t miss this chance to delve into an archaeological journey that spans over a millennium!
Ordnance Survey Map of 1875 showing the Sugar Refinery
Extract of Rocque’s map of 1746
A collection of Bartmann jugs, possibly from an inn
Valencian lustre ware base with IHS monogram
Glazed medieval floor tile. Scale 10cm
Fragments of stove tile. Scale 10cm
A large Roman quarry pit located in the extreme south of the excavated area. Scale 0.50m
Roman clay-lined oven
Partially articulated sheep skeleton
Intercutting medieval quarry pits. Scale 0.50m
Section through a large medieval quarry pit. Scale 0.50m
Brick walls and floors dating to the 17th century. Scale 0.50m
Section through a large medieval ditch. Scale 0.50m
Timber lining of 17th-century quarry pit. Scale 0.50m
Brick walls and floors dating to the 17th century. Scale 0.50m
Main east wall of the Sugar Refinery. Scale 0.50m
Steel I-beams on cast iron column. Scale 0.50m
Basement structure in the Crane Base area. Scale 0.50m
We’re proud to announce that Sian O’Neill at the Cambridge office has received a Certificate of Appreciation from local schools for hosting students in work experience placements. This recognition highlights the impact of helping students develop key skills like communication, teamwork, and confidence in a professional setting. These placements offer students a real-world view of potential career paths, bringing to life jobs they are considering for their futures.
We’re pleased to display this certificate at our office and online; this partnership is a meaningful way to invest in the next generation, and we look forward to continuing this initiative.
The end of the school term means one thing at the Cambridge Office – work experience placements! We have been proud to host students from Sawston Village College for the past 11 years and have increased our provision to students from other schools and colleges in the region too since 2021. This year we have hosted 12 students over the past 2 months!
Harry excavating a cremation urn with Osteologist Petra
For insurance reasons we can’t have under 18 year olds working on construction sites so the majority of the placement is based in the office – working on finds and environmental processing and archiving. We do our best to make our placements as interactive as possible, introducing students to different career paths within archaeology through taster sessions with various staff members in different roles, such as specialist finds analysis, photography, and GIS.
Sawston Village College students on a site tour with Rita’s Saxon teacup pot
We also try to get students out to visit an excavation and were very lucky this year to have an amazing Saxon project based just ten minutes from our office, where they were present to see rare and unusual artefacts actually coming out of the ground, such as the small Saxon cup pictured here!
One of thousands of bags of bone marked this year!
As well as providing a comprehensive view of archaeology for our students, we also of course expect them to work hard and this year have had particular legacy project that needed to be prepared for archive. With their help we should be able to deposit the 640 boxes of animal bone that they meticulously marked by Christmas!
So, many thanks of course to our work experience students for all of their time and effort: Harry from Linton Village College; Audrey, Charlie, Lewis, Luca and Matthew from Sawston Village College; Isabel from Trumpington Community College; Ben from Tring School; Daniel from Hinchingbrook School; Sam from Kings College London; Seb from Parkside Community College; and Ró from Swavesey Village College!
This stunning Anglo-Saxon cast saucer brooch is our star find so far from a site in the West Midlands! It would originally have had garnet inlays and dates to the 6th century.
Although research is still in its early stages, no parallels have been found for this combination of animal decoration and triskele motif, suggesting the brooch could be a significant discovery.
What a find! Last week Tamsin, one of our archaeologists, found this bronze age socketed axe during an evaluation in Hertfordshire.
Socketed axes were developed during the Late Bronze Age, an evolution on the earlier “palstave” type axes which characterised the Middle Bronze Age in Britain and Ireland.
This example has a side loop that probably helped secure the head to its haft, and dates to about 1100 – 800 BC.
For #WorldHeritageDay we’d like to share our recent work at the Tower of London.
PCA has been commissioned by Historic Royal Palaces to undertake built heritage work during several stages of restoration at the Tower of London. In 2018, during the replacement of the protective staircase in the Flamsteed Turret, the timber covers and the underlying stone stair vice built from 1075/79 to 1100 were recorded. In 2021, building recording was carried out when the walkways leading to and from the Wakefield Tower were replaced, while in 2023 a petrological survey of the Cradle Tower was undertaken prior to repair.
Building recording at Wakefield Tower.
Our petrological survey of Cradle Tower identified poor quality stone in need of repair.
A medieval stone culvert in Wakefield Tower.
Petrological analysis in the Flamsteed Turret identified the same 1080 to 1090/93 building break as that seen elsewhere in the fabric of the White Tower, around 23m OD.
We’re accustomed to unearthing fascinating artefacts, but every so often, something extraordinary is discovered which sends ripples through the archaeological community.
During recent excavations in Suffolk, our team found two very unusual Roman coins. Dr Peter Guest, who has undertaken extensive research on the coins has just posted his findings on LinkedIn.
The coins in question belong to the reign of Carausius, a usurper who ruled Britain and northern Gaul from 286 to 293 AD. Carausius’s coinage served as a canvas for sophisticated propaganda, which portrayed Carausius as an equal to the official emperors of the time, Diocletian and Maximian, and as the upholder of traditional Roman values. He was clearly particularly fond of the poet Virgil, especially his Aeneid (which was 300 years old at the time).
I struggled with the 2 new coins for a while because the combination of obverses and reverses didn’t make sense. Their obverses bear the emperor’s helmeted radiate bust facing left with spear and shield and the legend IMP CARAVSI-VS AVG (‘The Emperor Carausius Augustus’). The helmeted obverse bust was modelled on a type issued during the reign of Probus (276-282) and, although it is known for Carausius, it was not common.
Dr Peter Guest
The coins’ reverses are equally intriguing, also derived from coins of Probus but of a type unknown on Proban radiates and only known from gold aurei struck ing Rome and Siscia. on Carausian radiates. The reverses depict the helmeted emperor facing left, holding a spear and shield. He addresses two supplicants on either side, with the legend “PACAT ORBIS” (Peace-bringer to the world). The mint marks on these coins – //oXXVL – are previously undocumented for Carausius.
This type of Carausian radiate is not recorded in the relevant volume of Roman Imperial Coinage (published in 1933) and there is no mention of it in the Online Coins of the Roman Empire corpus (https://lnkd.in/eKSY9ppm), or anywhere else for that matter.
With the invaluable assistance of colleagues from The British Museum, including Andrew Burnett and Dr. Sam Moorhead, Dr Guest discovered that two other coins of the same type and mint mark had been recorded since 1933, providing crucial context and validation for our find. The inclusion of these coins in the upcoming edition of Roman Imperial Coinage Vol. V.5 further cements their significance in numismatic history.
Yet, questions remain. What were these rare coins doing at a settlement in West Suffolk, amidst a cache of 596 other Roman coins?
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