Graves were uncovered at Camp Farm dig site in Maryport, Great Britain.
Early Christian graves have been found in the archaeological dig at Camp Farm, Maryport, next to the foundations for a large building identified in the 2011 excavation season. The site overlooks a nearby Roman fort and settlement.
Said Newcastle University’s Professor Ian Haynes, project director for the excavation,: “We still haven’t resolved the full plan of the site, and this will be our focus for the remaining weeks of the excavation. As far as the structures are concerned, it’s looking as if there are at least two phases of construction. Meanwhile, the graves that have been discovered indicate sustained use of the cemetery site.”
Painstaking excavation has revealed bone fragments, caps of tooth enamel, a glass bead necklace and a tiny fragment, about the size of a thumbnail, of ancient textile.
“Given the ground conditions at this site the survival of this scrap of material is nothing less than miraculous", said site director Tony Wilmot. “We’re discovering new things on an almost daily basis which are giving us new insights into what happened on this site across hundreds of years. It will take a while to process all the information following the dig but what we think we’re looking at now is a Christian cemetery close to a sequence of Christian religious buildings. If this is the case then this is a very exciting discovery - an early post-Roman Christian religious site occupied at the same time as other famous early Christian sites at Whithorn and at Hoddom in nearby Dumfriesshire.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Glass beads excavated at the site. Courtesy Senhouse Roman Museum and Hadrian's Wall Trust.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The westernmost grave is a typical long cist grave, lined with stones. Such graves, dated to the period 400 to 600 AD, are occasionally found in the west of Britain and in southern Scotland and are characteristic of the late Roman and early post-Roman Christian settlements of the area. In this stone lined grave was a white quartz stone that appears to have been deliberately placed there at the burial. This is also a marker of this period, found at several sites including Whithorn in Dumfriesshire, in Ireland and on the Isle of Man, and at Whitby in North Yorkshire.
The soil on the Maryport site is acidic, so the team did not expect any bones to have survived but small fragments of three of the long bones and three caps of tooth enamel were found in the brown stain which was all that was left of the occupant of the grave.
In the second grave there were no human remains. Where the head would have been, the grave was lined with pebbles and a Roman roofing slate had been reused as a pillow stone. This grave appears to have been the final element of a sequence of three intercutting graves, so the cemetery was used over at least three generations of burial.
Another stone-lined grave showed signs of a timber coffin.
The deepest grave, also stone lined, is very small, possibly the grave of a child. In one corner, coiled up, was a necklace of glass beads. In a pagan grave the deceased would probably have been wearing this necklace, but here it looks as though it has been placed in the corner, possibly as a favourite object deposited as a keepsake. The textile fragment was found during wet-sieving of the lower fill of this grave.
The bone fragments and the textile fragment will now be sent to an archaeological laboratory to determine if there is enough material for radiocarbon dating, and the glass necklace will be conserved for display in the Senhouse Roman Museum.
Further excavation of the post-holes for the large building has yielded the corner of an altar capital and an altar fragment bearing an inscription, ‘IS’.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The four graves excavated thus far. Courtesy Senhouse Roman Museum and Hadrian's Wall Trust.
_______________________________
This year’s Maryport excavation is funded by the Senhouse Museum Trust, Newcastle University and the Mouswald Trust. The team includes archaeologists and students from Newcastle University and 42 local volunteers.
The site is part of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site and a scheduled ancient monument. It is owned by the Hadrian’s Wall Trust and is part of the proposed Roman Maryport heritage development.
On August 4, 2012, an excavation open day will be held from 11am to 4pm for visitors who are interested in knowing what goes on behind the scenes of an excavation. Senhouse Roman Museum admission applies. Visitors to the museum will be able to take guided tours around the site and to the site of the Roman fort and civilian settlement until August 14.
About the Senhouse Roman Museum
The Senhouse Roman Museum displays the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any site in Britain and unique examples of Romano-British religious sculpture.
The collection, which was begun by the Senhouse family in the 1570s, is the oldest private collection in the country, and is of international importance.
Most of the objects in the museum derive from the fort at Maryport and the Roman civil settlement attached to it. Recent geophysical survey revealed the site to be one of the largest and best preserved in the north.
More information is available at www.senhousemuseum.co.uk
About the Hadrian's Wall Trust
The Hadrian's Wall Trust is responsible for the care, protection, communications and management of the 150 mile Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site from the western Roman coastal defences at Ravenglass, Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport to Bowness-on-Solway, along Hadrian's Wall through Carlisle and Hexham to Newcastle, Wallsend and South Shields.
There were over 30 forts on the Roman frontier across the north of England, including 16 along the line of the 73 mile Wall itself plus coastal, outpost and supply forts. Along the Wall there were around 80 milecastles and 160 turrets, a ditch to the north and the great defensive vallum earthwork to the south.
Hadrian's Wall is also part of the first transnational World Heritage Site – Frontiers of the Roman Empire - which includes the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German Limes. This represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched from the west coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast.
More infdormation is available at www.hadrians-wall.org.
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2012/article/dig-reveals-early-christian-cemetery
Said Newcastle University’s Professor Ian Haynes, project director for the excavation,: “We still haven’t resolved the full plan of the site, and this will be our focus for the remaining weeks of the excavation. As far as the structures are concerned, it’s looking as if there are at least two phases of construction. Meanwhile, the graves that have been discovered indicate sustained use of the cemetery site.”
Painstaking excavation has revealed bone fragments, caps of tooth enamel, a glass bead necklace and a tiny fragment, about the size of a thumbnail, of ancient textile.
“Given the ground conditions at this site the survival of this scrap of material is nothing less than miraculous", said site director Tony Wilmot. “We’re discovering new things on an almost daily basis which are giving us new insights into what happened on this site across hundreds of years. It will take a while to process all the information following the dig but what we think we’re looking at now is a Christian cemetery close to a sequence of Christian religious buildings. If this is the case then this is a very exciting discovery - an early post-Roman Christian religious site occupied at the same time as other famous early Christian sites at Whithorn and at Hoddom in nearby Dumfriesshire.”
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Glass beads excavated at the site. Courtesy Senhouse Roman Museum and Hadrian's Wall Trust.The westernmost grave is a typical long cist grave, lined with stones. Such graves, dated to the period 400 to 600 AD, are occasionally found in the west of Britain and in southern Scotland and are characteristic of the late Roman and early post-Roman Christian settlements of the area. In this stone lined grave was a white quartz stone that appears to have been deliberately placed there at the burial. This is also a marker of this period, found at several sites including Whithorn in Dumfriesshire, in Ireland and on the Isle of Man, and at Whitby in North Yorkshire.
The soil on the Maryport site is acidic, so the team did not expect any bones to have survived but small fragments of three of the long bones and three caps of tooth enamel were found in the brown stain which was all that was left of the occupant of the grave.
In the second grave there were no human remains. Where the head would have been, the grave was lined with pebbles and a Roman roofing slate had been reused as a pillow stone. This grave appears to have been the final element of a sequence of three intercutting graves, so the cemetery was used over at least three generations of burial.
Another stone-lined grave showed signs of a timber coffin.
The deepest grave, also stone lined, is very small, possibly the grave of a child. In one corner, coiled up, was a necklace of glass beads. In a pagan grave the deceased would probably have been wearing this necklace, but here it looks as though it has been placed in the corner, possibly as a favourite object deposited as a keepsake. The textile fragment was found during wet-sieving of the lower fill of this grave.
The bone fragments and the textile fragment will now be sent to an archaeological laboratory to determine if there is enough material for radiocarbon dating, and the glass necklace will be conserved for display in the Senhouse Roman Museum.
Further excavation of the post-holes for the large building has yielded the corner of an altar capital and an altar fragment bearing an inscription, ‘IS’.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The four graves excavated thus far. Courtesy Senhouse Roman Museum and Hadrian's Wall Trust.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Peter Greggains of the Senhouse Museum Trust said: “We are delighted that, for the second year in succession, the careful work of the volunteers and the Newcastle University team, ably directed by Ian and Tony, has produced such breath-taking results.
“The Maryport site’s importance as a unique and valuable resource capable of providing information about the remote past has been established beyond doubt, and we now have new light on the Dark Ages.”
Said Nigel Mills, director of world heritage and access for the Hadrian’s Wall Trust: “We are delighted that the importance of Maryport in the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site is being fully confirmed through this important work. Evidence of continued occupation of former Roman sites across Hadrian’s Wall is transforming our understanding of how people adapted to the end of Roman rule.”_______________________________
This year’s Maryport excavation is funded by the Senhouse Museum Trust, Newcastle University and the Mouswald Trust. The team includes archaeologists and students from Newcastle University and 42 local volunteers.
The site is part of the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site and a scheduled ancient monument. It is owned by the Hadrian’s Wall Trust and is part of the proposed Roman Maryport heritage development.
On August 4, 2012, an excavation open day will be held from 11am to 4pm for visitors who are interested in knowing what goes on behind the scenes of an excavation. Senhouse Roman Museum admission applies. Visitors to the museum will be able to take guided tours around the site and to the site of the Roman fort and civilian settlement until August 14.
About the Senhouse Roman Museum
The Senhouse Roman Museum displays the largest group of Roman military altar stones and inscriptions from any site in Britain and unique examples of Romano-British religious sculpture.
The collection, which was begun by the Senhouse family in the 1570s, is the oldest private collection in the country, and is of international importance.
Most of the objects in the museum derive from the fort at Maryport and the Roman civil settlement attached to it. Recent geophysical survey revealed the site to be one of the largest and best preserved in the north.
More information is available at www.senhousemuseum.co.uk
About the Hadrian's Wall Trust
The Hadrian's Wall Trust is responsible for the care, protection, communications and management of the 150 mile Hadrian's Wall World Heritage Site from the western Roman coastal defences at Ravenglass, Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport to Bowness-on-Solway, along Hadrian's Wall through Carlisle and Hexham to Newcastle, Wallsend and South Shields.
There were over 30 forts on the Roman frontier across the north of England, including 16 along the line of the 73 mile Wall itself plus coastal, outpost and supply forts. Along the Wall there were around 80 milecastles and 160 turrets, a ditch to the north and the great defensive vallum earthwork to the south.
Hadrian's Wall is also part of the first transnational World Heritage Site – Frontiers of the Roman Empire - which includes the Antonine Wall in Scotland and the German Limes. This represents the border line of the Roman Empire at its furthest extent in the 2nd century AD. It stretched from the west coast of northern Britain, through Europe to the Black Sea, and from there to the Red Sea and across North Africa to the Atlantic coast.
More infdormation is available at www.hadrians-wall.org.
http://popular-archaeology.com/issue/june-2012/article/dig-reveals-early-christian-cemetery
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario