Subscribe now for full access and no adverts
Since its foundation in 2005, the Culver Archaeological Project – a volunteer community initiative based in East Sussex – has spent every summer immersed in the area’s Roman past. Their initial investigations near Barcombe Church shed important light on the surrounding infrastructure of a high-status complex that evolved from an Iron Age/early Roman farmstead to a substantial winged corridor villa by the early 3rd century. Then, from 2011, their focus shifted to Bridge Farm on the opposite side of the River Ouse, where the team have excavated settlement remains including post-built structures, roads, and ditches. Its location (linking the Roman road network to a navigable stretch of the river) and recovered artefacts speak of commercial activity, and by the late 2nd/early 3rd century it was evidently deemed sufficiently important to be encircled by earthwork defences.
The long-running project, its finds, and its future plans are all showcased in an exhibition currently running at Worthing Museum & Art Gallery (complementing the Edwardian building’s permanent displays dedicated to Sussex stories spanning prehistory to the present day). The room’s walls are lined with information boards tracing the progress of the investigations over the years, as well as plans and geophysics plots illuminating both sites explored by CAP. These frame a trio of glass cases containing an eclectic array of objects drawn from the initiative’s excavations.
Bookending the display space, two of these cases contain larger objects, among them a diverse range of pottery (above), including intact vessels and part of a Samian bowl with lively decorations depicting a lion and a boar leaping over a prostrate man; a very large roofing tile; and a rusted sword blade. There is also a unique find for Roman Britain: part of a carved oak timber that once formed part of a roof’s rafters.
Running down the centre of the room, a longer case is packed full of smaller finds, among them a colourful brooch representing a running hare or a long-eared dog (above); two intaglios whose designs are still crisply clear; and a Samian fragment preserving a rather appealing image of a fluffy-pawed lapdog reminiscent of a poodle. An impressive range of coins stretches from Republican denarii and an Iron Age Sussex ‘lyre type’ coin – which, dating to c.50-30 BC, is one of Britain’s earliest struck coins – to issues of various Roman emperors, a Tudor half-groat, and Georgian pennies.
Towards the end of the exhibition, a board notes that CAP plan to carry out resistivity surveys this winter to guide their next phase of work. This long-running initiative clearly still has many secrets to reveal.
Further information: A New Roman Landscape in Sussex will be at Worthing Museum & Art Gallery until 12 January 2025. Entry to the museum (open Wednesday to Sunday) and the exhibition is free. For more information, see: http://www.wtm.uk/romanlandscape.
You must be logged in to post a comment.