The latest excavation by the long-running Caistor Roman Project has uncovered a series of unusual deposits within the monumental triple ditches that encircled Venta Icenorum, capital of the Iceni. At the same time, recent GPR surveys have shed new light on aspects of the settlement that these once-imposing earthworks surrounded. Giles Emery and Will Bowden report.
Excavations at Oxford University’s Oriel College have helped to confirm the limits of the city’s Anglo-Saxon defences. Oxford first appears in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle in AD 911 It was a burh, a fortified settlement, and while this entry does not…
As Hadrian’s Wall is a protected World Heritage Site, opportunities to excavate across the line of the Roman fortifications are rare. In the summer of 2021, however, planned development works in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle upon Tyne offered the possibility to do just that – and Pre-Construct Archaeology’s investigations revealed not only the first turret to be uncovered along the Wall in over 40 years, but the largest example identified to date, together with other defensive features. Project Officer Scott Vance discusses the background to the discovery and its implications for the study of Hadrian’s Wall within urban Tyneside.
Excavations at Bar Hill in Cambridgeshire yielded almost 700kg of animal bone – including over 8,000 amphibian bones.
One of the most significant discoveries the team made was circular ditch monument.
Could the relationship between the Roman army and local communities living in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall hold the key to understanding this remarkable monument? Current Archaeology's Matthew Symonds investigates why it was built.