Interim Report: Trench 1

We are making good progress with compiling the interim report from our 2010 excavation series. We should have this completed by Easter. In the mean time here is the site description of Trench 1 and the associated plan

Trench 1
This was c. 37m by 26m and located in the north‐east corner of the fort. The excavation was begun in 2009, and continued in 2010, when a 15m by 5m hand‐dug extension was added to the south‐western corner.

Along the south‐eastern edge of the excavation, the interior of the earlier fort rampart was exposed [1]. A stone and clay oven was partially excavated, which had been constructed into the rampart [2]. Built over this oven and against the early rampart was a second rampart, running along the northern edge of the excavation trench, and forming the northern edge of the later fort [3]. This incorporated a wider corner area [4], within which a corner tower had been constructed [5]. Of similar construction to the later rampart, and perhaps constructed at the same time, a large raised area was built against the early rampart in the south‐eastern corner of the trench, sloping down towards the centre of the fort [6]. Stone walling on both ramparts may have supported angle towers [7, 8].

A long narrow rectangular building ran parallel with the south‐east rampart, set back c. 14m from the rampart edge, and c. 6m from the north‐east rampart. The building, as exposed, is c. 30m long, and c.6m wide internally. The stone walls [c. 0.6m wide] are generally faced on both sides, with a narrow rubble core, although there are variations in construction which may indicate different phases of building, and their association with exterior stone surfaces. Up to three courses of wall were visible in places, including wider foundation courses: at the southern end of the western wall in particular, larger stone blocks set in clay may indicate an earlier building on the same alignment, reused as a foundation for the later building. The wall foundation appears to have been extended further south in this area through the construction of a bank of clay and stone [9].

Possible post holes were identified within the upper surfaces on the walls which may be indicative of a timber superstructure. Elements of internal stone walls were present within the structure. Across the centre of the building was a surface of large paving stones [10], into which a deep stone and clay‐lined pit had been incorporated [11]: a cattle skull had been placed in the base of this pit. A hollow way [12] led towards this from a probable entrance in the north wall of the building. This cut through a clay floor, over which elements of paving and gravel surfaces survived. A drain, lined with stone roof tiles, had been constructed across this floor [13].

To the south of the paved surface was a sunken area [14], up to 0.5m deep, demarcated by the walls of the building, internal paving, and an internal wall. Further paving was present in discrete areas within the building to the south of here. Elements of clay floor also survived within this area.

Built against the eastern wall of the building were stone and cobbled surfaces (15), stretching towards the eastern rampart. These surfaces appeared contiguous with the upper surface of the wall, but did not extend within the building. They extended over the raised area in the south‐eastern corner of the trench, and around the southern end of the building, demarcating the extent of the building in this direction in this phase of use. Elements of stone surfaces were recorded to the north of the building, but the surface was not contiguous in this area. The surfaces spread over and incorporated the remains
of a second rectangular stone building (16) positioned over the raised area, which was off‐alignment with the fort ramparts.

Incorporated within the surfaces were two linear gullies [17], which may be associated with crudely constructed low stone banks [18]. Stone banks were also present along the top of the northern rampart and along the edge of the south‐eastern raised area (partially remove in 2009). Stone‐lined pits were present within the surfaces; two of the larger of these are marked on the plan [19]. These are partially lined with flat stone slabs. Further similar features may be present at the eastern edge of the cobbled area.

The cobbled surfaces were not identified on the western side of the building. Here, a clay and stone path led up over the wall of the building [20]. Elements of two stone‐lined pits with associated stone spreads and low banks were recorded in this area [21]. Large quantities of cattle bone were recovered from this area of the site in particular.

An antiquarian trench was identified through the angle tower [22]; some of the facing stones for the walls had been removed. Deposits identified across the trench that related to post‐medieval landscaping activity and ploughing were excavated in 2009.

Roman kilns

A post from Melissa Chatfield on our plans for this summer at Binchester

"One of the ongoing research agendas with the Stanford group is Binchester Kiln Project. Initially funded by the Stanford President’s Fund for Innovation in the Humanities, the project set out to make a replica Romano-British kiln on campus as a practice run for a similar kiln to be built on site in England. Ideally, we will make a pottery kiln that is an exact duplicate of one that we find at Binchester. Based on the results of the geophysical survey, it is likely we will find one this summer. In the meantime, we constructed a kiln on campus that is a composite of several key features found in Late Iron Age and early Roman kilns of Britain.

In mid-January, we fired our Stanford Binchester Kiln for 19.5 hours to bake about 40 pots, which were made by the Ceramics Club and the student-run Ceramics studio on campus. Over this period, we weighed wood in a bucket suspended from a ladder and took temperature readings using a digital data logger with 3 thermocouples: two positioned in the ware chamber and one between the layers of sod over the fire tunnel.

Using a mixture of hard woods and wood from fruit trees, we sustained a high temperature of about 950º Celsius that was achieved about 15 hours after ignition. Students and volunteers stayed late into the night, and a few into the early morning as the dew began to settle on our grassy kiln

We let the kiln cool for about 30 hours before opening it up. The sod covering the ware chamber cracked and crumbled in our hands. All of the 40 pots survived, although some had experienced some heat warping. The wall of the kiln, with no clay lining other than the clay matrix of the mound, sustained some cracking but no spalling, which was good for the pots. However, these cracks might need to be repaired before our next firing.

A few of the pots in the mix, such as the orange one in the foreground of the photo on the right, were made with clay we shipped back from a clay mine near Binchester. As luck would have it, the world’s largest brick manufacturer, Wienerberger, has a brick factory about a mile from the site and has been an enthusiastic supporter of the kiln project. Taking the lessons we learned from our experience at Stanford, we will design and build our Durham Binchester Kiln over the next few field seasons. With access to all the geologic strata of clay in the region, including the clay available in prehistory, we will continue our experimental work in the acquisition and transmission of craft knowledge.

For more information about the construction process of this kiln and continuing research, please visit the Burnt Earth Blog .

Binchester finds washing

I am setting up the finds washing/marking sessions for Binchester pot/bone again. They will be Tuesday's and Thursdays (2pm-4pm) in the Dept. of Archaeology at Durham beginning Tuesday February 1st and continuing until we've finished it all! Drop me a line if you are interested

New Year at Binchester

Happy New Year from all of us at the Binchester Research Project. We've had some great news to kick things off, as we look forward to Season Three of the excavation this summer. The nice folks at the Roman Research Trust have granted us £2000 to fund two small evaluation trenches intended to investigate some interesting anomalies on the geophysical survey that they funded last year. One area of interest is a possible inhumation cemetery situated within an enclosure to the north of the site towards the Bell Burn; the other is a zone of what may be industrial activity nearer the north entrance of the fort. These trenches are not intended to fully excavate the features, but to evaluate the nature, extent and condition of the potential archaeology. This information will feed into the long-term plans for the project and enhance our understanding of the areas around the fort and vicus.

New light on the end of Roman Binchester

We're working away on the post-excavation phase of this year's fieldwork, and some interesting fragments of metalwork are coming up which shed light on the important transition from late Roman into the early medieval. Dr Rob Collins (Portable Antiquity Scheme), our finds advisor writes

"Two objects found in the 2010 excavation at Binchester have been tentatively identified as belonging to occupation of the site in the 5th century. The ring-headed pin (top photo)was an object of the Scottish Iron Age that continued to develop and see use into the Early Medieval period. The example found at Binchester is of a simple form, cast integral, and does not display any of the more elaborate decoration of the handpins more commonly dated to the Early Medieval period. The form of the Binchester pin may date to the Roman period, but ring-headed pins are not commonly found at Roman fort sites.




The second object can be more confidently dated to the 5th century. This is the terminal fragment of a Fowler class E penannular brooch (Bottom photo). The terminal itself is a stylized zoomorphic head, and the hoop of the brooch is decorated with moulded rings. In the northern frontier, these appear in the last quarter of the 4th century at the earliest and found at a number of Roman fort sites, notably those with known stratigraphic sequences dating to the 5th century."

The ring-headed pin was found in Trench 2 in the vicus, frustratingly, however, it came from the post-medieval linear that cut across the site and is thus out of context. The brooch fragment was found in Trench 1 in a rubble spread that lay between the barrack structure and the rampart.

The Beautiful Rooms are Empty

We are pleased to report that the full excavation report from the important campaign of work carried out at Binchester in the late 1970s and 1980s by Iain Ferris and Rik Jones is now available. This splendid two-volume publication includes full analysis of these excavations as well as substantial wider contextual material about the fort and the history of research there. This is going to be essential reading for those interested in the fort (including ourselves) and will certainly help redefine our research priorities in future seasons. The report is available from Durham County Council for £35 + £8 p+p.

Aerial-cam shots of Binchester

I've not yet had a chance to post some of the fantastic vertical and oblique shots taken of the site in September by Adam from Aerial-Cam. Using a digital camera on an extendable low mast attached to a Land Rover, he is able to take what are essentially low-level aerial photos. This has given us some excellent shots of Trench 1 (the fort) and Trench 2 (the vicus).