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Buried at Birdoswald: excavating a Roman cremation cemetery outside the fort
To-date, the 3rd-century cremations discovered above Birdoswald fort remain the only Roman cemetery to have received major archaeological attention along the line of Hadrian’s Wall. What light does it shed on the people who lived and died on the frontier? Tony Wilmott explains.
To the west of Birdoswald fort, on the edge of a high cliff above the River Irthing, lies a Roman cremation cemetery. The dead who were interred there have not been allowed to rest in peace, however: in recent years, the river cliff has seen a dramatic acceleration in erosion, threatening the archaeology of the cemetery. In 1999, Time Team undertook a small evaluation there, recovering a couple of cremation deposits, but the increased erosion observed in 2008 required a much larger response.
It was decided to create an archaeological ‘cordon sanitaire’ by fully excavating a 15m-wide area along the cliff edge, recovering and recording the archaeology deemed under long- and medium-term
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