Digging up history at the Wall.A HISTORIC cemetery at risk of disappearing for ever is finally being excavated. The dig by Newcastle University and English Heritage English Heritage is a non-departmental public body of the United Kingdom government (Department for Culture, Media and Sport) with a broad remit of managing the historic environment of England. It was set up under the terms of the National Heritage Act 1983. is the first excavation of a cemetery on Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall, ancient Roman wall, 73.5 mi (118.3 km) long, across the narrow part of the island of Great Britain from Wallsend on the Tyne River to Bowness at the head of Solway Firth. It was mainly built from c.A.D. . The operation, at Birdoswald Roman fort near Gilsland on the Notthumberland-Cumbria border, will continue until October 16. The fort and its civilian settlement are perched above the River Irthing The River Irthing is a river in Cumbria, England and a major tributary of the River Eden. Rising in the hills around Paddaburn Moor in Border Forest Park, for the first 15 miles of its journey south it defines the border between Northumberland and Cumbria. with sweeping views down to its valley. Forming part of the Wall world heritage site, the Roman cemetery is situated on the cliff edge and is under serious threat from erosion, which has accelerated over the last few years. Professor Ian Haynes, Chair of Archaeology at Newcastle University who is at the dig, said: "We know from earlier discoveries in and around the fort site that Birdoswald had a very cosmopolitan population during the Roman period. "A fragmentary tombstone records a soldier from Africa, while the regiment in the garrison was originally raised in or around Transylvania in Romania." University dig supervisor Doru Bogdan is from Romania will be investigating his long-ago ancestors. A small-scale Channel 4 Time Team evaluation in small trenches at Birdoswald in 1999 discovered two complete cremation cremation, disposal of a corpse by fire. It is an ancient and widespread practice, second only to burial. It has been found among the chiefdoms of the Pacific Northwest, among Northern Athapascan bands in Alaska, and among Canadian cultural groups. urns, evidence that although the site was partially damaged by ploughing in the medieval period, there is still important archaeology hidden beneath the soil. CAPTION(S): LESSONS FROM THE PAST: Romanian archaeologist Doru Bogdan, a Phd Student, at the Birdoswald site |
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