There's no shortage of Roman archaeology in the village of Piercebridge, County Durham. In addition to the Roman religious offerings from the river, which I'm cataloguing, there's also evidence for a 2nd century settlement, a 3rd century fort and even a villa.
However, with so much archaeology, it's sometimes hard to see the wood for the trees - particularly when some of it is underwater! What I really wanted to know was how the discoveries in the river related to the archaeology on dry land. Essentially I wanted to establish 'context' which is something all archaeologists are obsessed with! I hoped that by inviting Time Team to the site I'd get answers to some of my questions.
Over the course of three very hot summer days, we did manage to establish some context, pose a good few more questions about Piercebridge in the Roman period and witness Ben, Guy and Tony don wetsuits!
Phil discovered a ramp leading down from the settlement to the river, there was a Roman road in Faye's trench and Matt discovered a whole new area of early Roman activity to the north west.
However, the highlight for me was watching the work of the underwater team. Without once getting a camera wet, they located the findspot of the religious offerings and recorded the remains of at least three Roman bridges which were sampled for dendrochronology dating. I can't wait to see the results!
