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The 'ankle-breaker'
Excavations conducted by the Kent Archaeological Field School at Syndale, in Kent, have produced some interesting Roman finds. The most exciting was the discovery of what is thought to be an 'ankle-breaker ditch', a special military design that incorporates a trap at the bottom to perform the task it was named after.
A day or two's march from where the Romans landed in 43 AD, and on the north-Kent route they would have taken on their way to the Thames, could this be the site of the first Roman fort in Britain, dating back to the Claudian invasion? As usual, the Team had three days to find out.
Ridges, terraces and banks
As the geophysics team battled to extract information from the confused and tough-to-interpret landscape, all eyes turned to landscape expert Stewart Ainsworth. The ridges, terraces and banks surrounding the site would have been complicated enough anyway, even without the landscaping that had been carried out over the past few hundred years.
Using his skill to read the land, though, Stewart unravelled the 'lumps and bumps' and suggested that what looked like a defensive perimeter on the western side of the hill was actually based on Iron-Age agricultural terracing which had been adapted during later use of the site. It was time for some trenches to make sense of it all.
Claudian pottery
Excavation uncovered Roman ditches on the western and eastern sides of the site. These features contained Roman pottery from the 1st to 3rd centuries AD. One fragment was even dated by pottery expert Malcolm Lyne to the Claudian era. The profile of the ditches was 'V' shaped, however, and didn't feature the expected military ankle-breaker at the bottom.
Old Farmer Time
Further excavation in the east of the site discovered another Roman enclosure ditch, this time dated to the late Roman period. Investigations at the centre of the site, meanwhile, found no evidence for substantial features apart from what appeared to be a large rubbish pit or well. Nowhere had any evidence been found for military activity.
The final conclusion, after much searching and trench-digging, was that this wasn't the first Roman fort in Britain. In fact, it wasn't a fort at all but more likely a defended farmstead that had been used and remodelled frequently throughout the Roman period.
'What we were hoping to find here at Syndale was some evidence for a first-century fort, which is what the local archaeologist Paul Wilkinson thought he had when he discovered some Roman ditches,' says Roman expert and Time Team regular Guy de la Bédoyère. 'Now the problem is that a ditch does not make a fort – a ditch is just a ditch. What you need to find is a combination of ditches and associated features.'
What would you expect to find on a site of this type?
'The sort of thing we might expect to find could be a marching camp, where Roman soldiers would bivouac for the night. In that case all you would have would be a shallow ditch and possibly a turf rampart, but very little else as these sites were not permanent and would only have had tents inside and not solid buildings.'
What did the field school find?
'The archaeologists here had actually discovered more substantial ditches, which led us to believe we may have had a more permanent fort. However, for that type of enclosure we would expect large ditches, ramparts and evidence for timber gates on each side and buildings inside the walls.'
So what have the Time Team excavations discovered?
'In fact, what we've found here has been lots of little pieces of ditch which don't appear to relate to each other. We've also had none of the range of finds we would expect if this was a military establishment. Yes, we've had some Claudian coins and pottery but nowhere near enough.'
So what do you think this site was?
We're now absolutely confident that we have no fort here at all. The area has obviously been settled, but it looks more like it would have grown up over the second and third centuries as a normal settlement alongside Watling Street, which is the main Roman road running through here to London.'
Not scared to argue
Brigid Gallagher is one of the regular group of Time Team diggers. Popular with the team, she's also highly qualified as an archaeologist and not scared to argue her theories with the most eminent of specialists. When it comes to interpreting sites or complicated features Brigid knows her stuff. She can also turn her hand to conservation, having recently qualified as a conservator at Cardiff University. Among her non-Time Team interests, she is the project conservator, with Ian Hodder, for the Catalhoyuk site in Turkey, a project on which she works every year.
'I was born in New Zealand and became very interested in anthropology and archaeology at an early age,' she says. 'I ended up going to Auckland University to study it and actually did my degree in geomorphology (soil science) and archaeology.' After that, she worked as a field archaeologist and became an archaeological technician at the Auckland Museum.
'I then wanted to get going on my career in archaeology, but found at that time that it was going to be difficult to find the right job in New Zealand. I came to Britain to do field archaeology, with a mind to specialise in something within that process. I worked as a field archaeologist for three years, digging all over the country, and during this time I got to know Kate Edwards, the Time Team post-excavation officer. Last year they were looking for some new people to get involved in Time Team and Kate suggested me to the producers.'
From digging to report writing
Brigid's job within the team entails everything that a field archaeologist has to do: guiding machines, digging by hand, identifying and recording discoveries, and much more. Between the programmes she freelances as an archaeological report writer and is currently involved in writing up some of the Time Team sites from last year.
'I've just finished a second degree (in archaeological conservation) at Cardiff University, so I do some onsite conservation for the programme too,' continues Brigid. 'The best part of doing Time Team has to be the general comradeship between the archaeologists and the crew. Then there are the places that you get to dig and all of the travelling. It's great fun to do. I also like being involved in a television programme that does so much to help educate people about archaeology. That's really important.'
Favourite Time Team
'My favourite Time Team was probably Sedgefield, in County Durham,' says Brigid. 'It was really exciting and I found the only structure on site and got to do the end-of-day scene. After that it has to be Dinnington in Somerset. Finding those Roman mosaics was just amazing.'
She also says she likes long walks on the beach, has an adventurous spirit and is fun to be with ...
Roman Britain by Tim Potter and Catherine Johns ('Exploring the Roman World' series, British Museum Publications, 1992) hardback £19.95; paperback £12.99
A survey of the effects of Roman culture on Britain and its people, by two British Museum curators. Includes evidence from the latest archaeological discoveries, including the Vindolanda writing tablets and the Thetford and Snettisham treasures, as well as a gazetteer of noteworthy sites to visit.
Roman Britain by T W Potter (British Museum Press, 1983, 2nd edition 1997) paperback £8.99
The four centuries during which the Roman presence in Britain rose, flourished and declined changed every aspect of life: industry, trade, government, the arts and learning. This book gives an illustrated outline of the period.
Roman Britain by Martin Millett (English Heritage, 1995) paperback £15.99
Making full use of the archaeological material available, this introductory study of four centuries of Roman presence in Britain explores the central themes of daily life, laying particular emphasis on the social, economic and cultural history.
Life in Roman Britain by Joan Alcock (Batsford/English Heritage, 1996) paperback £15.99
An excellent social history of life in Roman Britain covering food and drink, clothing, recreation, administration and religion. Richly illustrated.
Companion to Roman Britain by Guy de la Bédoyère (Tempus, 1999) hardback £25
This book is a comprehensive compilation of historical and epigraphic facts about Roman Britain and seeks to set the record straight about where facts end and opinions begin. Includes a complete breakdown of all military units, when and where they were stationed and so on, together with details of buildings, officials, administration and the first full list of the Gods of Roman Britain.
An Atlas of Roman Britain by Barri Jones and David Mattingly (Blackwell, 1993, 2001 edition) paperback £15.99
An amazing accumulation of archaeological evidence has been used to map every aspect of Roman life on a countrywide scale, including the distribution of Roman forts, towns, villas, potteries and quarries. Lots of additional plans and useful descriptions on each topic.
Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.
The Roman army in Britain
www.morgue.demon.co.uk/
Detailed website about the Roman army in Britain, its fortresses, forts, watchtowers, temporary camps, depots and industrial sites, built over 400 years, with photographs, reconstructions and other background material on the army and the military history of Britannia. Includes a gazetteer of Roman military sites, bibliography and other web links.
Caistor Roman town
www.sys.uea.ac.uk/Research/
ResGroups/JWMP/CaistorRomanTown/crtp1.html
A virtual tour around the Roman town of Caistor, in Norfolk, which was a thriving regional capital almost two millennia ago. The site is unique in never having been disturbed by later buildings.
Virtual Rome
www.forumromanum.org
At this excellent site you can not only take a virtual tour of ancient Rome, but can also consult a dictionary of mythology, delve into Roman history and the Latin language, and take your pick of a variety of other links to sites concerned with the ancient world.
Roman Britain
www.bedoyere.freeserve.co.uk
Time Team Roman expert Guy de la Bédoyère's website includes his online catalogue of stone inscriptions found on altars, statue bases, tombstones and other blocks of Roman masonry. This includes full details and photos of the inscribed stone found at Ancaster. Other resources include a catalogue of Roman gods and goddesses based on a chapter from his book A Companion to Roman Britain (see Further reading).
The Romans
www.open.ac.uk/romans
Website set up by the Open University and the BBC to accompany a three-part series about the Romans. Presented by Time Team's Roman expert Guy de la Bédoyère, the website allows you to explore each programme in detail, with synopses, scripts and biographies of the contributors. There's also a timeline, details of the main locations visited in the series, an extensive reading list, links to other sites, and more information about the Open University courses that the programmes support.
Open Directory Project
dmoz.org/Science/Social_Sciences/
Archaeology/European/British/
Sites_and_Monuments/Roman
The archaeology section of the Open Directory Project, a collection of weblinks organised by subject, is maintained by Time Team Forum regular Jean Manco. This includes a range of links to Roman-related websites. There is a section on various Roman sites and monuments in Britain.
Roman Britain Club
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/romanbritain/
Another Time Team Forum regular is behind a club on Roman Britain, set up specially to discuss the history and archaeology associated with this furthest outpost of the Roman empire.
Pottery websites
Potsherd: An atlas of Roman pottery
www.potsherd.uklinux.net/index.php
This is a collection of web pages on pottery and ceramics in archaeology, principally of the Roman period (1st century BC to 5th century AD) in Britain and western Europe. The pages include an introductory atlas of Roman pottery, containing descriptions and distribution maps of types of Roman pottery (particularly types found in Britain) and listing them by class (table wares, cooking wares, transport amphorae etc) and source (province of origin). The site also includes a companion to Roman pottery in Britain, a published survey of pottery made or used in Britain during the Roman period.
PotWeb: Ceramics Online at the Ashmolean Museum
http://potweb.ashmol.ox.ac.uk
The Ashmolean, Britain's oldest public museum, has one of the finest collections of ceramics in the world. Now the museum has launched an ambitious project – PotWeb – to create an online catalogue of its entire ceramic collection. When fully developed, the catalogue will be extensively illustrated and supported by a computerised database, bringing together the fruits of 150 years of historical and archaeological research.