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Posted: 10-04-2013 07:14 Post subject:

Slideshow/picture gallery of some of the finds from the Bloomberg site:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-22086375

Posted: 12-04-2013 09:10 Post subject:

A long article on the London dig here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/archaeology/9987112/Digging-up-Roman-gold-in-the-City-of-London.html

Extract:

Posted: 04-05-2013 08:28 Post subject:

Richard III team makes second Leicester car park find

The team that discovered the remains of Richard III under a Leicester car park has made another find.
A 1,700-year-old Roman cemetery has been identified beneath another car park in the city.
Archaeologists from the University of Leicester believe the remains date back to 300AD.
Researchers found 13 sets of remains of mixed age and sex as well as hairpins, belt buckles and other personal items at the site on Oxford Street.

In February remains found beneath Greyfriars car park were revealed to be those of the last Plantagenet monarch, Richard III.

Project officer John Thomas said: "We have discovered new evidence about a known cemetery that existed outside the walled town of Roman Leicester during the 3rd to 4th Centuries AD.
"The excavation, at the junction of Oxford Street and Newarke Street, lies approximately 130m outside the south gate of Roman Leicester.
"Unusually, the 13 burials found during the recent excavations, of mixed age and sex, displayed a variety of burial traditions including east to west and north to south-oriented graves, many with personal items such as hobnailed shoes."
During the dig archaeologists also found a jet ring bearing what is possibly an early Christian symbol.

"Roman law forbade burial within the town limits so cemeteries developed outside the walls, close to well-used roads," added Mr Thomas.

Previous excavations on Newarke Street have revealed numerous Christian burial grounds near the present site.

Unusually, the recent excavations display a variety of burial traditions.
One grave possibly even suggests a Pagan burial, with the body laid on its side in a semi-foetal position and the head removed and placed near the feet, alongside two pottery jars that would have held offerings for the journey to the afterlife.

"It is possible from the variety of burials found that the cemetery catered for a range of beliefs that would have been important to people living in Leicester at this time," said Mr Thomas.

The site is earmarked for development.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-22404032

Posted: 12-05-2013 14:59 Post subject:

Posted: 23-06-2013 22:37 Post subject:

Posted: 01-07-2013 23:15 Post subject:

Posted: 07-07-2013 00:45 Post subject:

Posted: 10-08-2013 07:04 Post subject:

Hot summer unearths Roman discoveries in Wales
[Photos]

A rare Roman fort and marching camp have been discovered in Wales by aerial archaeologists during the hot summer.
The major Roman fort complex was spotted on parched grassland near Brecon, Powys, and the marching camp near Caerwent in Monmouthshire.
Aerial archaeologist Toby Driver said he could not believe his eyes when he spotted the fort from the air.

Scores of Iron Age farms and forts were also found in Pembrokeshire and the Vale of Glamorgan.
The crop of summer discoveries follow similarly exciting Bronze Age ones made during last winter's snow.

Dr Driver, from the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW), said 2013's spell of hot weather has left him reflecting on some of the most significant finds since 2006.
He targeted reconnaissance flights in a light aircraft to where the drought conditions were most severe across the length and breadth of Wales.
When crop marks show in drought conditions Dr Driver said the Royal Commission's aerial survey only has a few weeks to record the sites before rain or harvest removes them.

The Roman fort complex discovery near Brecon was a "rare discovery for Wales" and was made following a tip from Dr Jeffrey Davies, who he has been working with on another project - the Abermagwr Roman villa excavations near Aberystwyth.

"Jeffrey Davies noticed an anomaly in Roman coin finds near Brecon, reported under the Portable Antiquities Scheme (PAS)," explained the aerial archaeologist.
"He had a hunch that the coins, of the Emperor Claudius, could indicate a lost early Roman fort, and passed a grid reference to me the day before a flight into central Wales.
"I couldn't believe my eyes when the pilot and I approached the location and saw fading crop marks of a major Roman fort complex, lost beneath fields and a road for nearly 2,000 years." Cool

Between Caerwent and Chepstow, the aerial survey pinpointed only the second Roman overnight marching camp in Monmouthshire which Dr Driver said appears to show a small expeditionary force on manoeuvres, perhaps in the years around 50 AD.
"Because the campaigns against the tenacious Silures were documented by Roman historians, we expect more camps in south east Wales than we currently know about," he added.

West of Caerwent, a "remarkable" Iron Age settlement was also revealed.
In Pembrokeshire, one of the largest and most complex Iron Age defended farms in Pembrokeshire was found at Conkland Hill, Wiston, while in the Vale of Glamorgan more Iron Age settlements were discovered close to the Roman villa at Caermead, Llantwit Major.
Dr Driver added: "Given the decades of aerial survey in the region around Caerwent, these surprise discoveries show the continuing need for aerial archaeology in Wales."
In the winter, surveys in the snow uncovered Bronze Age burial mounds in the Vale of Glamorgan and a moated site at Llangorse lake, near Brecon.

The Royal Commission will now begin cataloguing and mapping the discoveries to make the information more widely available online.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23628630

Posted: 02-10-2013 07:47 Post subject:

Roman skulls washed down lost river
By Melissa Hogenboom, Science reporter, BBC News

Archaeologists working with London's Crossrail project have uncovered 20 skulls believed to be from the Roman period.
It is likely the bones were washed from a nearby burial site along one of London's "lost" rivers - the Walbrook.
Since the Crossrail project began, about 10,000 Roman items have been discovered.

These latest finds could give new insights into the lives of Roman people.
Near-intact pottery artefacts were also found which likely travelled along the same route as the skulls. Other bone fragments would not have been washed as easily down the river.

Paved over in the 15th Century, the Walbrook river divided the western and eastern parts of the city, its moist muddy walls providing exceptionally good conditions for artefacts to be preserved.
The discoveries were found about three metres below ground and underneath the Bedlam cemetery, a burial ground where hundreds of skeletons have been unearthed.

Though they have yet to be forensically dated, Nicholas Elsden from the Museum of London Archaeology said they were likely to be from the 3rd to 4th centuries AD, as that was when Romans buried their citizens as opposed to cremating them.
"It's relatively unusual find to find so many concentrated [in one area] when you're not in a graveyard. We're 100 yards outside the Roman city walls."
Roman law required burial outside the city, explained Mr Elsden, which meant there were burial sites circled around the town.
"What we're looking at here is how the Romans viewed their dead. You wouldn't imagine modern burial grounds being allowed to wash out into a river," he told BBC News.

Don Walker, an osteologist also from the Museum of London Archaeology, said the skulls were probably buried in different environments, shown by their shades of brown and grey.
"Forensic studies show that when the body disintegrates near a watercourse, the skull travels furthest. Either because it floats or it can roll along the base of the river.
"They were possibly buried in an area where there wasn't much land available. At the moment it looks as though they've collected together through natural processes."

From initial observations, Mr Walker said there was no evidence of any "foul play", but details about their sex and age would only emerge through further investigations.
He added that chemical markers on the teeth could reveal where these people came from and what sorts of food they ate.

Archaeologists believe that the Crossrail Project will lead to further discoveries hidden beneath the streets of London and say it could transform our understanding of Roman London.

Other recent findings include several bodies believed to date from the time of the Black Death and wood thought to be evidence of a 3,500-year-old Bronze Age transport route through London.

Crossrail currently operates over 40 worksites and archaeological investigations are carried out at each site ahead of main construction works to build the central stations.
The project will connect 37 stations from Heathrow Airport and Maidenhead in the west, through central London and out to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east and is due to be completed in 2018. [Map on page.]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24351460

Posted: 09-10-2013 08:36 Post subject:

Giant stone Bosham Head was Roman emperor

A giant stone head unearthed in West Sussex more than two centuries ago has been identified as a statue of a Roman emperor dating back to AD 122.
Bournemouth University archaeologists used 3D scanners to examine the 26-stone (170kg) head, found in Bosham.
Dr Miles Russell and Harry Manley believe the 'Bosham Head', part of The Novium museum collection in Chichester, was a statue of Roman Emperor Trajan.
It is the largest Roman statue found in Britain, the experts said.

The head, which is twice life-size, was discovered in the garden of a vicarage in about 1800.
The 3D scanner enabled the experts to pick out facial features and a distinctive hairstyle, which led them to conclude it was Emperor Trajan.

Dr Russell, a senior lecturer in prehistoric and Roman archaeology, believes the statue, made of Italian marble, was set up by Trajan's successor, Hadrian, on a visit to Britain in AD 121-122 and would have greeted visitors as they entered Chichester Harbour.
A similar statue of Emperor Trajan was also put up by Hadrian at Ostia Harbour, in Rome.

Dr Russell said: "The statue is one of the most important finds from Roman Britain and would certainly have been the most impressive.
"The problem is because the face has been so battered by weathering - possibly because it was in the sea at one point - people have felt for the last 200 years that there's not enough left of the face to be that precise on its identification.
"It is a shame that it has been ignored and overlooked for so long, but now that laser scanning has helped resolve its identity, hopefully it will now take pride of place."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-24442207

Bosham (pr. Bozzom) is hardly at the entrance to Chichester harbour, but Bosham Hoe could qualify. If the harbour was deeper in Roman times, then vessels might have regularly gone up to the city of Chichester, and Bosham Hoe would have been on the north shore of the channnel. OS maps of the area show numerous Roman remains, including the Roman Palace at Fishbourne, just west of Chichester.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishbourne_Roman_Palace

(There is a canal from the harbour to the city, but that only dates to the 1820s:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chichester_Ship_Canal )