Excavation 2011- Update

Excavation 2011  -  Keep up to date with the excavation here.

Monday 6^th June - Friday 22^nd July: Excavation 2011:

When, 140 years ago, farm-workers recovered a unique series of Roman military altars from a field close to the important Roman fort in Maryport, they may have missed important clues. This year Tony Wilmott, Britain's most recognisable Roman archaeologist, is joining Professor Ian Haynes of the University of Newcastle to investigate how and why the Romans buried these altars. Who knows what they will discover?

A public programme of talks and site tours will be open to all visitors to the Museum during the six week excavation period. Opportunities to participate in volunteer activities will be available, and finds will be on display together with up-to-date information on the progress of the work.

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Maryport 2011 excavation - A volunteer's view, week 1

Everything seems to be going well at the excavation. Marvelous crowd of people. As a complete novice, I wouldn't describe my experience so far as a steep learning curve, more of a vertical bungee-jump into the workings of an excavation site - fascinating! This week I have been taught about Single Context Sheets and how to map and draw features using the 'Dumpy' level -  identifying, bagging, labelling and recording small finds. What really has captured my imagination is the environmental element of archaeo-botany and the demonstration of the flotation tank, picking out seeds from local wild flowers. Tony Wilmott also chatted about one of his colleagues finding small mammal skeletal remains at a previous site which indicated the presence of a Barn Owl. Having spent the best part of last year with the World Owl Trust and dissecting pellets, if some of the skeletons were frogs, that particular Barn Owl must have been living through a fairly harsh winter as their preferred diet is field voles and mice and will only scavenge frogs and insects when they are in short supply. What a visual picture that creates!
 
Anyway, the first week has flown past and looking forward to more learning next week. The good news is that my back is holding up!

Andy

Week 2 (6^th - 10^th June)

On site Friday 10^th June in the morning. Volunteers and students excavating an
18^th century boundary ditch, a possible altar pit and a posthole after overnight rain.

Any pits were full of rainwater and the rain showed the features up very well.

Another exciting find has been made at the Maryport archaeological dig led by Professor Ian Haynes of Newcastle University with leading field archaeologist Tony Wilmott.

Jane Laskey, curator of the Senhouse Roman Museum next to the site at Camp Farm made the discovery on Wednesday 29 June.

It is a large piece of another altar stone - the site is internationally famous for the cache of 17 altar stones found there in 1870 and now on display in the museum - 22cm high and 12 cm wide, found 75cm below the ground surface in a Roman ditch.

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