What they found

Skeletons and tombstones were discovered during the 19th-century development of the site of the Arbeia Roman fort in South Shields, on Tyneside. Further burials were excavated during more recent housing development. Time Team joined forces with Arbeia Fort Museum, county archaeologist David Heslop and local residents to investigate the surrounding housing estate for further evidence of a military cemetery.

Trenches were located within the open areas of the 1960s housing estate to determine the extent of the cemetery. The initial discoveries had suggested that the cemetery would be large. However, trenches placed beyond the recorded discoveries, both to the west and the north, revealed no Roman evidence and geophysics had a hard time even with the use of ground-penetrating radar.

Test pits excavated by residents in the estate gardens uncovered a few Roman sherds but no features. Test pits excavated by school children in the school grounds, to the west of the main fort gate, produced second- to fourth-century AD domestic wares.

Trenches placed immediately north of the known burials revealed a midden containing second- to fourth-century AD domestic wares, a cobbled path and a ditch. This indicated both that the vicus, the settlement associated with the fort, extended further south than previously thought, and that a path led from the main north-south road to the area of the known burials.

Trenches placed immediately south of the burial site were complicated by the existence of extensive services. It was suggested that a beam slot, in Roman levels, could be related to a similar feature discovered nearby to form a ritual enclosure beside the cemetery.

While the geology was not conducive to bone preservation, it was concluded that the known area of burials did not extend far beyond what had been previously excavated. The rest of Arbeia's dead were buried elsewhere.

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