UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER ARCHAEOLOGY FORUM. 3 March 2007

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1 UNIVERSITY OF LANCASTER CENTRE FOR NORTH-WEST REGIONAL STUDIES ARCHAEOLOGY FORUM 3 March 2007 The Carlisle Millennium Excavations - John Zant From 1998 to 2001 a major programme of archaeological excavation was undertaken within the Roman fort at Carlisle, immediately south of the medieval castle. Exceptional waterlogged preservation allowed the earliest occupational phases to be closely dated by dendrochronology. The first fort was founded in the autumn/winter of AD72-3, during Petillius Cerialis campaigns against the Brigantes, and a major refurbishment occurred in AD83-4. The fort was completely rebuilt around AD103-5 after a short break in occupation, but was again abandoned around AD140. There followed a period of years when the site may not have been occupied by a conventional fort, but an extensive phase of rebuilding in stone was undertaken by Legio VI Victrix during the early third century. Thereafter, occupation was continuous into the late fourth-early fifth centuries. Little evidence for early medieval activity was found. Intensive occupation recommenced in the twelfth century, when the site formed part of the medieval castle's outer ward, although activity seems to have tailed off by the fourteenth century. A near-complete profile of a massive ditch separating the outer ward from the medieval city was recovered. This feature was probably of mid-twelfth century date, but had gone out of use by the late fourteenth century, when tenements on the north side of Annetwell Street encroached over it.

2 The Chester Amphitheatre Project Tony Wilmott During the summers of three seasons of excavation were undertaken on the site of Chester s Roman amphitheatre under the codirection of Dan Garner (Chester City Council) and Tony Wilmott (English Heritage). This work has served to provide a wealth of new information about the development of the site from its previously unknown prehistoric origins to its use as a convent school during the 19 th and 20 th centuries. The results have also permitted a reinterpretation of the Roman amphitheatre s structural history. This has demonstrated the building s simple beginnings, consisting of a shallow arena surrounded by a solid earthen seating bank which was held in place by a stone outer retaining wall. In the years around AD 100 the building was refurbished with new architectural details including a hollow timber seating rake and flights of external staircases built against the outer wall. Finally, in the decades around AD 200 the amphitheatre was entirely rebuilt on a much larger scale with a massive new outer wall decorated with a two-tier external façade of regularly spaced halfcolumns. The new building was furnished with eight additional entrances (vomitoria) which allowed the spectators direct access to the upper rows of seats via internal staircases. To find out more about the Chester Amphitheatre Project you can visit our website at Vindolanda, size does matter Andrew Birley During the course of the last two years of excavation at Vindolanda, a new and mysterious building has been uncovered to the west of the main site. Although thoroughly demolished by the Roman Army after its garrison left, the timbers used in the construction dwarf anything that has yet to be found at Vindolanda, raising the possibility that another new fort (number ten) is about to be discovered on the site, one with a more legionary feel. The lecture will discuss the new findings surrounding this building and look at some of the other important objects that have come from the excavations in the past two years. This will include an important and hitherto unknown goddess and a small but complete statue of another god, one that has left little to the imagination.

3 Living in the Industrial City: recent survey and excavation work on workers housing in 18 th and 19 th century Manchester Mike Nevell In the last four years there has been an explosion of archaeological excavation work in the city of Manchester. Much of this has focussed on recovering and excavating workers' housing such as back-to-back and cellar dwellings, from the era of the city's great industrial boom (late 18th to mid 19th century). This has produced some consistent but surprising findings such as a constant lack of substantial portable finds from these properties of any period and the extremely poor build quality of much of this housing. It is now possible to combine this evidence with the survey of surviving workers' housing of this period to build up an archaeological picture of how these slum dwellings developed and what the City's response to this massive growth in population was'. Roman cattle: something for every occasion Sue Stallibrass We tend to regard most animals we meet as either food or pets but in the past they meant very much more to people: they could be symbols, tractors, status, power. Bones of cattle have been found on archaeological sites dated to the Roman period right across northern England. They are particularly common at military and military-related sites. How did people regard cattle? Were they something to wear? Something to eat? Something to worship? Did cattle indicate a military presence or were they an indigenous choice? This paper looks at evidence for how animals were utilised and regarded in northern England during the Roman period, with a special emphasis on cattle (because these are usually the most common species represented at a site) but also considering the other species found on northern sites. Recent Archaeological Fieldwork in the Manx Uplands - Andrew Johnson Around one third of the Isle of Man lies above 150m, and the majority of this area has never been subjected to modern agriculture. Features found in the course of modern afforestation developments have hinted at the potential for this largely moorland landscape to preserve a remarkable range of archaeological remains dating from the Neolithic onwards.

4 Survey work has been undertaken by the speaker over a number of years, initially with the intention of reassessing previous identification of medieval shieling sites. Subsequently the need to assess the potential impacts of forestry development spurred further survey. Whilst the threat of afforestation has receded, interest in the Manx uplands has grown, and other workers have contributed to the recording of previously unsuspected features. It is now proving possible on a more comprehensive level to identify a range of sites, from prehistoric burial and settlement, medieval shielings, chapels and abandoned farmsteads, to nineteenth century peat-cuttings and quarries. The paper will, through a number of localised studies, show how a clearer picture is starting to emerge of the way in which the Island s varied upland resources have been exploited. Roman Milestones revisited Ben Edwards Roman milestones are often treated as mildly interesting footnotes to the other, more important, inscriptions of Britain. The fact that they are collected separately from the remainder in The Roman Inscriptions of Britain is an indication of this mental attitude. Yet they can sometimes yield useful information, and their mere existence is a factor to be considered when we attempt to understand life in Britain in Roman times. Before we can do so, we must know where they are, or have been, situated and what their inscriptions, if any, say. The present talk attempts to describe all authenticated milestones from north-west England (i.e. the pre-1974 counties of Lancashire, Cumberland and Westmorland); to do the same for a number of probable milestones; and then, in several cases, to attempt to derive from them information useful in the wider study of the Roman north west. The Testimony of the Pictorial: the Vernacular Architecture of the Lune Valley Survey Marion McClintock In 1976, as Traditional Houses of the Fylde went to press, Richard Watson and I began a survey of the vernacular architecture of Over Wyresdale and the area to the south, intended as a companion volume. At the same time Jonathan Ratter approached the CNWRS to enquire whether funding might be available for a survey of some of the vernacular architecture of the Lune Valley. The Manpower Services Commission was persuaded that a grant to finance a small team was within its terms of reference and over the next two years Jonathan

5 trained and led his group as they surveyed houses and other buildings along the line of the River Lune and into Roeburndale. For a variety of reasons, neither set of data was published, but thirty years on it is clear that the information garnered then is even more valuable as further buildings are radically altered or lost altogether. It is planned that an effort be made to draw the two collections together, perhaps in a resource paper. The CNWRS has been greatly helped by an allocation from the Friends Disbursement Programme for the indexing and scanning of the Lune Valley material by Gillian Paxton. Today s examples are very much work in progress, to demonstrate the value of the visual and the pictorial in our analysis of standing structures built in the vernacular tradition. Their quintessential character is that each building is unique; a dwelling or working building made of indigenous materials, usually drawn from the immediate landscape, and situated to take the best advantage of shelter, water supplies and proximity to the pastures most beneficial to the farmstead or to a place with a settled community like a village. The steps to be taken for each recorded building are: (a) to identify which buildings, from their external appearance or by reputation, are worth surveying; (b) to obtain permission for a survey, and to abide by the terms agreed; (c) to measure, room by room if internal access is permitted, every feature, and to measure the exterior; (d) to undertake research on the provenance of the building and on its owners; (e) to draw and write an account of the building as quickly as possible after the fieldwork is complete. In the case of the Lune Valley material, some of the records were sent to the National Monuments Record for inclusion in that database.