Magna Dig Diary 2024

Magna 2024 excavations have now finished. Click here to find out how you can get involved in 2025.

Welcome to the 2024 season of excavations at Magna Roman Fort. Here in this Dig Diary we will post regular updates on the current excavations and post excavation taking place on site. You will hear from our archaeologists and volunteers as they share news and thoughts about what is being uncovered, the challenges and the highlights of the excavation season.

If you’d like to catch up on what was uncovered last season you can read our 2023 Dig Diary.

Who you’ll hear from (guest volunteers will sign off with their first name and “volunteer”):

Rachel: Senior Archaeologist for the Magna Project

Franki: Geoarchaeologist for the Magna Project

Sophie: Activity & Diversity Officer for the Magna Project

Cristina: Vindolanda Trust Pottery Specialist

Sonya: Vindolanda Trust Communications Manager

Exploring the season so far? Want to check on a specific period? Use the links below to take you to the start of each period of excavations. The latest posts are at the top of the page.

Introducing Dr Cristina Crizbasan – Pottery Specialist for the Vindolanda Trust

Stirring the Pot with Franki Gillis

2024 Pre-season set up

Period 1: 1st – 12th April 2024

Period 2: 15th – 26th April 2024

Period 3: 29th April – 10th May 2024

Period 4: 13th – 24th May 2024

Period 5: 27th May – 7th June 2024

#NationalVolunteering Week

Period 6: 10th -21st June 2024

Period 7: 24th June – 5th July 2024

Period 8: 8th -19th July 2024

Period 9: 22nd July – 2nd August 2024

Period 10: 5th – 16th August 2024

Period 11: 19th – 30th August 2024

Period 12: 2nd – 13th September 2024

Period 13: 16th – 27th September 2024

End of Season 2024

4th October

As we sign off for the 2024 excavations, check out our end of season video for Year Two of the Magna Project. If you have been inspired to join us in the trenches next year, please visit our excavations 2025 page for more information. Sophie

30th September

And just like that, Year Two of the Magna Project excavations is done! A huge thank you and well done to all of our excavation and post-excavation volunteers, everyone who has come to visit us trench side, and those who have been keeping up online via this Dig Diary.

Period 13 crew smashed it during the final period, finishing off an amazing six months of uncovering the secrets that lie within the landscape here at Magna. If this year has inspired you, booking for the 2025 Magna Excavation season will open at 12 noon GMT on 15th October 2024. Find out more here. Sophie

If you need any more persuading to experience an archaeological dig, Period 12 Magna Volunteer, Niki, shares what her first time on excavations was like…

Do you remember the wonder, excitement, and imagination you felt as a nine-year-old? Volunteering at Magna for two weeks brought all that back for me. I had a big smile on my face as we were digging in the dirt and mud and sun and rain searching for 2,000-year-old buried treasures and imagining the stories of those who had been there before us.

On my first day at the site, I was a little nervous. Having never volunteered on a dig at Magna or anywhere else, I didn’t know quite what to expect, but as it turned out, I was the only newbie and the rest of the group had been to Magna and/or Vindolanda several times. They were all so helpful and kind and I couldn’t have asked for a nicer, more interesting group. Several countries were represented and there was always something to talk about as we were troweling, spading, sorting, sifting, walking, or having lunch or tea. 

At the beginning of each day, my commute of less than three minutes passed through picturesque Greenhead and then up the hill with sheep in the field on one side of the road and cows on the other. At the end of each day, I was happily covered in dirt and just the right amount of physically tired, and I had so many stories and new things I’d learned swirling around in my brain. What a nice respite this was from my usual commute and usual work day of sitting in front of the computer. 

As we spaded and troweled and sorted, I kept hope alive of finding the next item for the museum. During our field trip over to Vindolanda on a rainy morning, I was well jel (a fun new-to-me phrase) seeing the trays of abundant finds they were sorting through. But even if we didn’t find the next tablet or hoard of coins, we found our own treasures and learned a bit more about Magna through what we uncovered during our time. I loved hearing the stories of the other veteran volunteers of times that they’d found shoes, tablets, pottery, coins, and more, and seeing the joy on their faces as they remembered. The treasure is in the experience.

I’d volunteer again in a heartbeat. It was a dream-list adventure for me and I’m so thankful for the opportunity to now be part of the history of volunteer excavation teams at Magna/Vindolanda. The 4,500+ mile trip was more than worth it. It was the perfect opportunity to unplug, imagine, learn, discover, and connect, and it was even better than I’d imagined it could be. The nine-year-old in me is grinning from ear to ear. Niki Volunteer

19th September

If you have been out to visit our excavations in the last few days at Magna you may have noticed volunteers disappearing down into a large hole in the mound that takes up most of our trench. This is where we have resumed our investigations into a stone lined well which the mound is surrounding. Currently measuring 2.87m in depth we have had to start deconstructing the upper courses of stone to continue excavating the inside on our quest to reach the base. While it is sad to see the stonework go this has revealed valuable information about how the well was originally built. We have discovered a well-built wooden frame surrounding the stone lining of the well, with interlocking horizontal and vertical beams similar to a log cabin, that would have been inserted into the construction cut to brace the sides and allow the stone lining to have been built up more easily. Some of these timbers are well enough preserved that we can still see the tool marks on them!

As well as trying to reach the bottom of the well we are also hoping to finally confirm when it was built. So far, all the evidence is pointing to 18^th or 19^th centuries when the site was a working farm because the small quantity of pottery we have found in the well all dates to this period. Seeing how later communities have used the land and interacted with the Roman remains is an important part of our research as we aim to tell the full story of Magna in both ancient and modern times. Rachel

17th September

As the period 13 team get stuck in to the excavations our period 12 post-excavation volunteer Dan reflects on his time at Magna. Rachel

While we often think of archaeological material, especially finds, as being those displayed in museums or visible on-site, the vast majority of ‘stuff’ recovered is classed as bulk finds or samples. These are then processed, recorded, analysed, and deposited in archaeological archives. Bulk finds and samples and the processing of them is therefore really important and this is what we deal with as post-excavation volunteers. From there, specialists like Cristina produce a mind-boggling amount of information and data. If you want an in depth idea of this, I’d recommend reading the 2023 season report. The report also highlights why a huge part of the Magna Project focuses on geoarchaeology – on environmental monitoring and the recovery of samples.

In my second week, I took part in the ‘Pieces of History’ event at Vindolanda. There, myself and another volunteer washed pottery from 3rd and 4th century contexts and spoke to the public about what we were doing, while Cristina explained to these visitors more specialised information on Roman Pottery. We got to meet Graham from Potted History, who made pottery using authentic methods. As with staff at Magna, his wealth of knowledge was wonderful. One body sherd had a sweet little handle. Showing us the interior surface, he told us how the potter had likely made a mistake and fixed that mistake soon after! You just never know what you will learn during your time at Magna and Vindolanda. It is sure to be more than you came with!

This is something I really love about volunteering at Magna – you get a real taste of various aspects of archaeology and meet a great array of people. The ability to quantify finds one day, wet sieve soil samples another, and then help at an engagement event, really makes you feel connected to and involved in the wider project and ethos of the Vindolanda Trust.

If you are undecided about volunteering next year, go for it! You’ll learn so much.
Dan Volunteer

13th September

Well done to our spectacular Period 12 team! They’ve battled hailstones, flooded trenches, and brought us to the final two weeks of Magna excavations 2024. Time to pass the trowel on for one final time this year… Period 13, we can’t wait to welcome you! Sophie

11th September

If you’ve excavated with us, or even just been to visit us on site, you’ve probably seen a yellow machine on a tripod out in the field. This machine, called a total station, is what we use to take coordinates for various finds and samples on site. A total station is a bit different than a standard GPS in that it works through triangulation, which allows it to be placed anywhere in the field. We then have to set it up by measuring against known coordinates on site (which we have located throughout both Magna and Vindolanda). Provided we aim well and have a steady hand, then our total station knows where it is and can take points! Knowing the coordinates of finds and samples allows us to look back at their exact location, even if the trench itself has been backfilled. The coordinates also allow for various geospatial analyses which can help us learn more about how the Romans used the land and certain objects. Overall, the total station is an extremely useful piece of technology for archaeologists and leaves much less room for error than the old fashioned dumpy level. Franki

9th September

As we begin this second week of Period 12, we have been once again thwarted by the weather, with the constant drizzle making the trenches unsuitable to work in – unless you want to turn the excavations into a slip’n’slide! However, not being able to excavate means that the team can get a further insight into the archaeological and climate research with lectures from Rachel and Franki in our wonderful excavation centre (crucially, with a good supply of biscuits and tea!). As our Period 12 volunteers learn more about our ongoing research, Period 11 volunteer, Roy, reflects on his experience working on some of the Magna cremations from this year. Sophie

Due to storm Lilian and a still-working ‘modern’ field drain flooding the well-trench some of the Period 11 team who were comfortable handling human remains were redeployed to looking for small pieces of human bone by dry sieving the material dug up from the cremation area. See the team’s earlier report Finding the forgotten: Hadrian’s Wall Dig uncovers ancient cremation cemetery. – Roman Army Museum.

I have been on a few digs and/or site visits in recent years where burial sites have been found.  In 2022 I visited some of the prehistoric cave paintings in France.  The village where we stayed, Les Eyzies, was where the Cro-Magnon remains had been found in the 19^th century. The L’Abri Cro-Magnon Museum has a recreation of a Cro-Magnon family and their animal-skin tent rock shelter.  The remains of the Cro-Magnon people were found with possible grave goods in what looks like an intentional burial. Did they believe in an after-life? How much joy and sadness had they experienced in their lives?

Just like the Cro-Magnon burials the finds at Magna raise lots of questions about the beliefs of the cremated people.  In particular for the Magna burials why were they not in the Roman cemetery next to Magna fort? Were they not allowed to be buried there or did they prefer not to be with the Roman burials and, if the latter, why choose that particular spot between the milecastle and the fort?  Did they all die at roughly the same time, e.g. from an outbreak of disease or violence, or were their deaths spread out over many years?  Did they have mostly good lives, or were they forced labourers or slaves? What did they believe happened to their souls after death?

As my sieving partner Kay and I sifted the Magna material I asked their forgiveness for stirring their remains in a sieve and thanked them for still providing scientific knowledge hundreds of years after they had laughed, cried and hopefully loved and were loved in their own lives. Roy Volunteer

5th September

Work in our newest trench has been progressing nicely this week, with the team starting off by extending the trench to the east to expose more of the ditch running through the middle of the excavation. while this hasn’t proved to be as wide as we first expected it does now appear to be curving and the shallow profile is much more characteristic of the Iron Age rather than the Roman period. This is an exciting possibility as unlike the Iron Age features we discovered earlier in the season there has been very little later activity (Roman or otherwise) in this part of the site, meaning we have the best chance to uncover the pre-Roman landscape in this trench. Personally I’d love to find a roundhouse inside it but I shall have to wait and see if my wish comes true!

We have also been able to start tackling the moat which has formed in the well trench, making it look a bit less like an island and more like an archaeological dig again. Hopefully we will be able to resume work on the Roman layers of the peat in the next few days and uncover more evidence of how this boggy landscape was being used in the Roman period. So far, we have potential evidence for tanning leather and a timber building just waiting for us to get back to. In the meantime, our volunteers have started to remove some of the clay mound surrounding the well to understand its formation and see what lies beneath in the sealed deposits of peat. Rachel

2nd September

A huge welcome to our Period 12 crew, who arrived on site this morning. We have some intriguing trenches to continue to explore as we come to the final four weeks of Year 2 here at Magna, so keep an eye out for updates over the next few weeks!

If you have been able to visit us here on site over the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed some differences to the site. The Vallum, which was excavated with a valiant effort from all who dug it this season, has now been fully excavated, recorded and backfilled. As with the Milecastle, we have left a depression in the landscape to commemorate the legacy of these excavations. John, Period 10 volunteer, gives us an insight into his ‘lovely Vallum-time’ earlier in August. Sophie

Day 1, we start with the grand site tour. The Vallum (a massive 6m x 3m deep Roman ditch south of Harian’s Wall, in theory), looks promising. The Well protrudes from the bog in a heap of pink clay surrounded by dumped stones and Roman peat. I am allocated to bog de-turfing and find stratified blue polypropylene rope. The finds team aren’t keen.

Day 2, De-tufting bog and clean peat in morning, start on some loose slag dumped into the well mound in afternoon. Find some tractor bolts (accepted by finds bag).

Day 3 morning, nothing in bog. Afternoon, I meet some Romans, or maybe brits, cremated on the Vallum berm. We pick sparse bits of bone out of ash and collect charcoal for environmental work. Curiously fascinating. Wipe ash off table before tea break – makes biscuits gritty.

Day 4, I am condemned to the Vallum; delighted. Vallum digs do not come along often, one every 20 years. Near the base, Mike and I clean (scrape) a side for recording. But- after it was dug, turf and clay were chucked back in. The turf decays to spongy grey blocks. Sadly, the cleaned “edge” proves to be undercut by old turf. Cue some exquisitely finessed hacking with the Mattock. After lunch, Minerva, Goddess of archaeological wisdom (and Deputy Director) inspects our efforts. She is pleased, the side is good, so we now descend to the muddy depths. A small boy looked in with awe! How come adults get all the fun.

Day 5, drizzle as the midges munch. We unearth the base filled with soggy turf. Then we slowly extract ourselves leaving the trench pristine. Balanced precariously, Rachel does a final athletic clean then records it. So, the Vallum is dug. Why Hadrian wanted a massive ditch remains unknown. Next week – back to the bog. But I enjoyed my Vallum-time. John Volunteer

30th August

Well done to our Period 11 team who have battled all of Magna’s weathers over the past two weeks, opened up a new trench, and helped us understand more about this frontier landscape here at Hadrian’s Wall. Sophie

28th August

This week we opened up another new trench in the northeast part of our field. Our goal with this trench is to target a feature visible on LiDAR (and even Google Earth!) which caught our eye. This feature looks to be an oval-shaped ditch and is located just a little ways away from our prior test trench in the northeast.

Although our prior trench yielded little physically (although did give us useful info on the positioning of the large fort ditch), our newest trench already shows signs of this mysterious feature. Our wonderful team just began de-turfing this past Monday, so it’s still early days, but we firmly have the northern edge of this feature. The southern edge, unfortunately, is playing hard to get – hopefully this means we have another large ditch in our field! We plan to chase this edge and then get into the ditch itself. The fill of this ditch already seems quite peaty, so we should have nice anaerobic conditions once again – who knows what this new trench will yield! Franki

23rd August

As we are getting closer to the end of the season (only 5 weeks left now!) the weather is definitely starting to shift towards autumn with the strong winds and rain our period 1 and 2 volunteers were so familiar with making a return to Magna. Add to that the fact that we are now excavating in one of the lowest lying parts of the site, and the middle of the bog, and you’ve the perfect recipe for flooded trenches. These conditions are much more suited to ducks than archaeologists so despite conditions improving throughout the day we had to call off excavations as we would only damage the layers of fragile peat if we tried to dig when the site is so waterlogged.

This does however mean that our volunteers were able to enjoy some of our alternative outdoor activities without the need for waterproofs. This afternoon I took a group on a guided walk of the surrounding area to look at Thirlwall castle, which sits in the valley below Magna and was built from the neighbouring sections of Hadrian’s Wall. We were also able to look for surviving traces of the Roman features and discuss how the landscape has changed over the last 2000 years. Putting the fort back into its wider context like this can add new layers to our understanding of the site beyond the small windows into the past provided by our trenches. Rachel

20th August

Research forms a key part of the work The Vindolanda Trust does and while much of this can be done in-house, we also collaborate with researchers from around the world on all types of specialist projects. Most recently at Magna we have welcomed Sam Bithell, a PhD student at Durham University, who carried out two methods of geophysical survey of the vallum alongside our excavations. Sam joined us for two weeks during this year’s excavation season, once back in May and again last week, so if you came out to visit us during those weeks and saw lots of cables and probes stretching across the field then this is what it was for!

You can read more about his research here and we can’t wait to see the final results. Rachel

16th August

Well done Period 10! Amazing progress being made in the Vallum and Well, now to pass the trowel to Period 11. Sophie

15th August

Sadly the very heavy rain made a return today so there is no excavation taking place. However, as you’ll have read from previous diary entries that doesn’t mean everyone puts their feet up and drinks tea all day! Our Magna volunteers have headed over to Vindolanda and enjoyed a site tour and then return to our excavation base here for lectures.

Thankfully over the last few weeks our wet weather plan has not seen too many days of action. It has also given me the opportunity to get out in the Magna field with the camera and the drone to capture some footage of the action. For those of you who have enjoyed reading updates from our Senior Archaeologist Rachel, you can now enjoy listening to her as well as we’ve put together a short (12 minute) video about progress this year on the Magna dig. Sonya

13th August

I am back with some updates from the post excavation side. This week has been rather interesting as we’ve been changing a bit the era of our finds. As you may already know, we are currently excavating a well, which is abundant in post medieval finds! The volunteers have had a glance into more modern pottery, clay pipes and even a lead pipe. What a switch!

Anywayyy, back to our favourite Roman finds… this particular context within the double ditch feature has really surprised me, so let me take you on a ceramic journey today. Two particular rim sherds stood out due to their rather opposite chronological horizons:

Rim sherd of an early to mid-2nd century BB1 cooking jar. The rim is particularly straight with a strong shoulder, typical of the earlier periods. The earliest types arrived on the Wall in AD120s.

Rim sherd of a rather late 3^rd century BB1 cooking jar. You may remember from my previous posts that the very everted rims are indicators of a later date, in this case, about mid-to late-2^nd century AD.

The other sherds in the tray do not make the dating of the context any easier.

In support of the earlier date rim comes a sherd with acute lattice decoration. However, this is not your typical black burnish fabric, but rather an imitation of it and its fashionable patterns at the time. Black burnish ware starts making a more formal appearance on the Wall from AD 120s, so it is expected in this period for its imitations to appear on the market.

In support of a later 3^rd century date comes this other fragment of a cooking jar, whose obtuse lattice decoration seems to support a similar date.

So…how do we actually date this context? What do we make out of this?! Two options: this context has been in use over a longer period of time, accumulating a diversity of goods from the early 2^nd c. until the very beginning of the 4^th century. Alternatively, this could be the result of possible later disturbance that mixed the contexts and their finds, resulting in this pottery combination. This is a task for our field archaeologists to further uncover. Cristina

12th August

The excavation of the well is nicely underway, and we’ve uncovered a pathway leading to the well in addition to the foundations for a building. These two features are likely from the post-medieval period, but we are intrigued to see if these were built atop Roman foundations. Digging up post-medieval archaeology might not be our primary aim at Magna, but is incredibly valuable as we can learn about the overall usage of the land throughout history. It’s our goal as archaeologists to discover and document the narrative of the landscape, from prehistoric to modern times. Franki

7th August

After months of unseasonably wet weather forcing us to close down excavations in the vallum (courtesy of the Georgian field drains flooding the area) we have finally been able to catch a run of dry weather and get things going again! We started last week by pumping out the swimming pool that had formed during June and July and then getting stuck in, metaphorically and literally sometimes, cleaning out the swampy mud that was covering the trench. Once we could see the archaeological deposits again it was full steam ahead excavating an area in the centre of the trench to try and find the base of the ditch once and for all!

A change of volunteers hasn’t slowed us down and period 10 are continuing the hard work of their predecessors. We have located the sides and base of the vallum and are now uncovering them across the central area in preparation for the final round of recording, hopefully by the end of this week. It hasn’t all been mud and clay though as the team have had some lovely finds to reward their efforts. We have found a handful of Roman roof tiles in the lower fills which puzzled us at first since there aren’t many buildings around about, but these likely came from the milecastle and the towers that would have originally stood over the gates. One tile even had a bonus feature of a small hoof print, spotted as the mud was cleaned off!

The biggest excitement came earlier today however as we had our first organic artefact from the vallum. A lovely leather shoe was uncovered from the very lowest fills on the south side of the ditch. This was unexpected as the deposits in the vallum so far haven’t shown signs of being anaerobic (or able to preserve organic material). With the final couple of days excavating in the area to go who knows what else we might discover. Rachel

5th August

Huge well done to Period 9 for their incredible efforts on site over the past two weeks! Simon, Period 9 volunteer, gives us an insight into his experience over the past two weeks. Sophie

There are many things to be said in criticism and praise of the Romans, but from my recent season at Magna one thing that cannot be disputed is that they certainly knew how to build ditches.

To me a ditch is generally something roadworkers dig for no discernible purpose, by the side of a road to slow traffic to a crawl.  Sometimes deep but nearly always narrow. At Magna it means something else.  A huge earthwork metres deep, wide, and until excavated, full of tonnes of stones and dirt some of which, due to rain, sticks like the proverbial glue.

These are or were defensive earthworks.  And formidable obstacles they must have been.  Removing 2000 years of fill was also formidable.  On the good side through assiduous use of trowel, bucket and spade I gained a valuable, hands-on experience of how a Roman soldier must have felt building the things in the first place. Of course I was only doing it for two weeks and was, thankfully,  not subject to military discipline (we were allowed a tea break), but none the less as the days passed the admiration grew.

Every time I come either  to Magna or Vindolanda I am very impressed by how much the science of archaeology is advancing, not just in dating technology but also in soil analysis etc.  During this dig we heard of archaeologists who specialise in soil analysis,  insects etc. Given the number of biting midges we encountered each evening we went to the pub, the later must have been in clover.

It is indeed wonderful to see this evolution, be enraptured by the enthusiastic way Andrew and team explain the technologies before – asking us to get our age old buckets, trowels and brushes and head out once again. Simon Volunteer

1st August

With one more day left of Period 9 here at Magna, volunteer Lizzie tells us all about her experience of her first year excavating at Magna…

My love for Hadrian’s Wall began as a child of 10 visiting family who were living near these ruins, once was part of the Roman empire.  Over my lifetime I have come back time and again, walking along the Whin Sill, visiting Chesters Museum, driving along the Military Road, making a pit stop at Brocolitia Roman Temple to the Sun God Mithras. We meandered Hadrian’s wall at different points from Newcastle to Carlisle.  And always visiting Vindolanda!

In 2018 my cousin heard about volunteering at the dig at Vindolanda —-she resides in Scotland and I in Canada. 

So, we won our places in the online lottery.  We were coming to participate alongside a magnificent enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable team of archaeologists and other longtime diehard volunteer archaeological enthusiasts. This magical place called Vindolanda, and now also Magna, continues to exist and thrive due to the brilliant team of Andy Birley, Marta Alberti, Rachel, Franki, Christina and Sonya and their entire posse too large to name — and we volunteers helping to uncover the soil layers and reveal this incredible history.  

During my time volunteering at Vindolanda I have uncovered a blue glass bead whilst de-turfing in the snow in April 2018, to a game counter, tweezers, and individual Roman shoes found deep below the surface.  

This year was my first year at Magna. I participated in uncovering a cremation pyre then went on to sifting through anaerobic material and uncovering an antler and leather shoe parts. We have two days left and most of us are now looking ahead to the Oct/Nov lottery dates, should we not win the Veterans additional lottery.  

This experience at Vindolanda/Magna allows people from so many places and professions to come together and share in what was happening here nearly 2000 years BEFORE US! Loving every minute of it!! Lizzie Volunteer

30th July

Well worth it? The excavation of the large mystery water Well begins as Dr Andrew Birley, Director of Excavations, takes us through our new trench here at Magna.

As the weather improved in late July the decision was made to uncover the next significant target of the archaeological project, a stone built well of unknown origin, standing taller than it should in the field at Magna. Situated on a 1.2m high mound which is appearing to slowly rise out of the ground as the surrounding field subsides, it was this feature that gave the first clue that our changing climate was having an adverse impact on the archaeological remains at the site.

But was this a Roman, medieval or more modern construction? It appears on no old plans, illustrations or maps of the site. However, that does not necessarily mean it is truly ancient, only that map makers and illustrators did not think to include it, or it was not visible during their fleeting visits to the site.

Excavations will reveal the answer.

The mound and surrounding area were de-turfed by hand in a single day, showing a large floating platform of clay, some 7metres wide by 10metres long, holding the central 1.1metre x 1.1metre stone lined well. Both are surrounded by a wider sea of black and desiccating peat. The first finds from the excavation included many fragments of pottery and glass, most of which were 19^th century in date, and a short length of a clay tobacco pipe, none of this was encouraging for a potential Roman origin. However, towards the end of the first day a single significantly sized rim sherd of Roman mortaria was recovered from the fabric of the well. This fragment may have found its way to the well by accident in later years, but its origin could be contemporary to the use of the fort.

As the excavations continue in the coming weeks, the excavations will uncover the truth and place this feature into its proper time and place. But regardless when it was built and in use, we remain thankful that it appearance showed us a greater truth, that the fields that surround it were not immune to our changing climate and that something had to be done about it. Andrew

24th July

Period 9 is in full swing, and the sun is shining over our very long trench here at Magna!

It’s Marta writing you today. I’m the Deputy Director of Excavations for the Vindolanda Trust and, while digging is on pause at Roman Vindolanda I am enjoying both the views and amazing archaeology which lays between Magna fort and Milecastle 46.

The landscape between Magna’s northern fort defences and the Milecastle is riddled with one of my favourite features: ditches.

From north to south we have at least three ditches visible within our trench: the Vallum, a 6m wide anaerobic filled ditch of unknown function, and a small curvilinear ditch surrounding a raised clay and cobbles platform. The sun beating down on us means we finally stand a chance at drying the ditches out and excavating them.

The Vallum is unfortunately still flooded: early modern ceramic drains flow into it, ensuring a constant water top up. The 6m wide anaerobic ditch is relatively water free, although some pumping action is required to keep it so. The edges are cut into bright yellow clay and are relatively easy to spot. Our job here consists in carefully following them until we reach the bottom. The task is sometimes made more complex by the deposit that have filled this large east west oriented ditch. Challenges are posed by clumps of hair moss, a form of pond growth preserved in anaerobic condition. Hairmoss was used by the Romans for a variety of purposes, including making wigs such as the one on display at Vindolanda, and helmet crests such as the one on display at the Roman Army museum. It is said that hair moss has insect repellent properties: thankfully, we have not had to put this to the test.

The smallest most southern ditch is the most enigmatic: it is not much wider than 1m, and appears to be curving around a clay platform. Today, as we were removing the top fill of this feature, we encountered yet another cluster of cremated human bones, ashes, wood, and charcoal.  While dutifully piling the contents of this new spread into sample buckets, volunteer Sam and forensic anthropologist Dr. Trudi Buck uncovered a lovely sherd of Samian: do you reckon it depicts a lion, a wolf, or a hound? Marta

22nd July

We are delighted to welcome our new crew of Period 9 diggers today! One of our Period 8 crew, Sandra, reflects on her time with us last week….

Being a novice volunteer on this project has been such a rewarding experience. I approached my contribution to the two weeks commitment, with curiosity towards investigating and enhancing my understanding of the past. I constantly wonder at humankinds’ ingenuity to cope with life. I wonder at what, could be the driving force to develop new systems, invent new tools and adapt to circumstances.

 I am in awe of those who devote their time and energy towards the importance of exploration and discovery. The leadership of Andrew and his team of experts was amazing. They moulded together a group of people and enhanced a sense of purpose and involvement in our daily tasks. Our bond encouraged the development of skills and proficiencies, for novices, experienced and veteran ‘diggers.’ The explanation of the day’s intended activities was made clear, highlighting the need for continuous questioning on findings. These need to be validated and assessed in order to consolidate the understanding of the timelines and the landscapes we found.

The joint knowledge of the lead team was greatly appreciated. The debriefings were informative and provided constant enthusiasm and reassurance. The staff are phenomenal, always cheerfully helpful and supportive. They constantly encouraged volunteers to question and engage with all the processes involved.

The entire event has been wonderful. I have started to explore new interests and learned some things about myself in the process. What an amazing experience!

My sincere thanks go to all the folk I met and to the incredible Team. Sandra Volunteer

20th July

And just like that, 2 weeks at Magna are done. 

With 2 years under my belt at sister site Vindolanda, I looked forward to the challenge of a new location, however with this challenge came different obstacles and we found our first few days unfortunately rather damp.

We were treated to a fantastic walk-around Vindolanda and the excavations there by Andy and then spent the day learning and building on our knowledge of pottery, overseen by pottery guru Christina. 

The wet weather continued and on day 3, Rachel gave us a talk on the excavations at the Milecastle and after lunch the weather finally cleared up for half an hour for us to get into the trenches and de-turf. 

It wasn’t all rain and gloom and a real highlight for me was seeing Andy’s face (not always pleased) everytime fellow volunteer Benny exclaimed he had found another cremation. I also have huge admiration for the ditch dwellers of the group who in 2 days managed to dig a ditch and get it to the anaerobic, all the soil sifting was worth it when 2 shoes were uncovered (only 1,993 to go Rachel). 

It’s always so exciting when something is found and really creates a sense of camaraderie amongst the volunteers and we were able to celebrate together by enjoying a meal together. 

So here’s to another year and I hope Period 9 has a dryer time and finally gets into the Vallum. Jess Volunteer

19th July

A huge well done to our stellar Period 8 team! They have helped us move even further to understand this incredible site at Magna. Sophie

15th July

It’s only Monday but we’ve already moved a whole lot of dirt this week! We’ve expanded our trench a bit further in the hope of determining the purpose of our large anaerobic ditch. There’s two smaller north-south ditches leading into this main ditch which, at this point, we believe were used for draining water into the bigger east-west ditch. Along one of these north-south ditches, we’ve also found more cremations! These cremations are a bit different than their northern counterparts in that we’ve already found more carbonized wood which suggests we might be closer to the funeral pyre. It is interesting that these ditches are south of the Vallum, however, so we are keen on figuring out what impacted the placement of these cremations.

Besides that exciting news, last week we opened up a trench to the east in our field, just north of WallE. The goal of this trench was determining if our large anaerobic ditch (which we are currently excavating) continued eastwards in the field as it was not clear on the LiDAR data. While the team was diligent and quick in their excavation, unfortunately the ditch is not in that area. While it is sad that we didn’t get to excavate more of that lovely ditch, it does give us a better understanding of the Roman usage of landscape – especially in the peatland bog area of our field.

Overall, we somehow have more questions than answers at this point in our excavation season, but we are finding wonderful features and artifacts! I think the next few months will reveal some exciting information on Roman Magna. Franki

11th July 2024

Rainy days and post excavation 🤝

Period 8 has had a rather damp start. Monday and Wednesday allowed us a generous hour or so (if!) of excavation. Therefore, on this ‘rare’ occasion, we kept our volunteers indoors, doing a range of post-ex activities.

On Tuesday we all had a look at the excavations at Vindolanda, followed by an indoor session of finds washing, sorting and bagging. Our lovely team of volunteers got to learn more about the work ‘behind the scenes’, the way we record bulk finds and the gentle care that is required when working with the material. Once again, we reinforced the importance of the context when dealing with the finds, as at this stage, they are at the highest risk to get lost from ‘home’ and end up as unstratified.

On this occasion, the volunteers also got to learn more about the popular pottery supplied on the Wall in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Black-burnished wares, Crambeck ware and calcite-gritted ware turned out to be amongst the favourites. We moved quickly from the looming question of ‘is it pot or rock?’ to the more advanced examination of ‘mortarium or amphora?’.

The knowledge did not stop here. On Wednesday, our volunteers learnt more about processing cremations by dry sieving and discovering the difference between coal and manganese. Find out more about the cremations at Magna here. Identifying bones did not prove to be any easier, as the classic bone or stone question kept looming. However, after a few attempts, I am proud to say that they have all become mini experts, advancing our progress in processing some of the 543L of cremation soil. Oh, have I mentioned the other 630L of non cremation soil that also needs to be wet sieved? Oops, yes, that’s still on the to do list. But our volunteers here are doing an amazing job in post-ex, having fun and learning new skills and priceless knowledge, while also making a massive contribution to our work. Cristina

5th July 2024

Well done to our fabulous Period 7 volunteers! Shane, part of our period 7 crew, reflects on what the past two weeks has been like… Sophie

I must admit I never used to be interested in archeology and very rarely watched programmes like Time Team.

That all changed in 2016, when I was doing a coast-to-coast walk along the length of Hadrian’s Wall. On the way down I visited Vindolanda as a tourist and was immediately captivated by the site.

I ended up watching some of the volunteers actively excavating in the trench. I was fascinated and got talking to one of the archaeologists about the dig and how to get involved. 

Unfortunately I had to wait a few years as I was 16 at the time and you have to be 18. Then life got in the way and I completely forgot about it.

It was only when I was 19 and happened to catch an episode of Time Team which featured Vindolanda that I remembered.

I then proceeded to sign up to the 2020 dig (which got cancelled because of COVID boo!!). I ended up doing 2021 and 2022 at Vindolanda and 2024 at Magna and honestly have had the best time of my life. I have found glass, pottery, Samian pottery, wood and this year I have been very lucky to be there when we found shoes and Lorica Squamata (scale armour).

I would certainly recommend volunteering here or at Vindolanda. Especially if you have an interest in archaeology. All the staff look after you exceptionally and are always there to help or answer any questions. As a result of their help, I now consider myself a Semi-Archaeologist, whatever that means. Who knows what the future will bring!! Shane Volunteer

3rd July 2024

When the weather gets poor the archaeologists get… indoors. The weather recently at Magna hasn’t been great. Thankfully there is a whole other side to archaeology aside from digging – Post excavation. As one of the Post-Excavation Volunteers I usually assist the team get their finds processed by washing, drying, bagging & tagging all the finds ready for specialists to examine. At Magna things look a little different. The majority of the work here right now is processing soil samples. Franki, over the last few periods has taken samples of the soil ready for processing. Processing is slow but can teach us a lot. 

We take the carefully gathered soil, dry it out and sieve them by hand to remove small fragments of charcoal & bone. Several of the excavators got a taste test this week with the indoor dry sieving when the weather was particularly poor. It’s something that not many volunteers at Vindolanda will have ever done. An exciting opportunity at Magna, to learn new skills learning about environmental sampling and why it’s important. 

After we dry sieved the soil samples earlier in the week, we start the process of wet sieving and a few of the excavators got a taste test of a different post excavation activity this week as the weather cleared up – outdoor wet sieving. 

We wet sieve the dry sieved samples to gather other environmental remains. In wet sieving the soil is washed and agitated so the environmental remains float to the surface whilst the sand and rocks sink to the bottom.

It allows us to separate dirt from small fragments of things like charcoal, seeds, nuts, shells, bones and even whole insects. All of which are incredibly small. But if we find them, and after the specialists have examined them, they can potentially tell us what type of wood might have been used for construction, what foods were grown and consumed and even what insects lived alongside the Romans at Magna. 

I thoroughly enjoyed sharing my knowledge with the other volunteers at Magna. I am incredibly excited to see what might be in store for our future understanding of Magna. Daena Volunteer

28th June 2024

Many volunteer excavators develop a wish list of objects that they hope one day to find.

For years, my own list has been topped by Lorica Squamata, the scale armour worn by many Auxiliary Roman soldiers. A single scale would be enough. It could be green and corroded, or broken. I just wanted to find it. I even actually dreamt I found it once (though, being a dream, I dug it up in a friend’s lounge rather than an archaeological trench).

Thursday afternoon started normally. I was part of a team processing blocks of anaerobic material being dug out of a Roman ditch. There was plenty of dirt and many stones, but also bark and sticks from ancient silver birch trees, which came out of the blocks shining a dark coppery colour in the sunlight.

My wheelbarrow companion Tom offered to make the trip to the spoil heap with the full load, whilst I moved to a spare barrow to continue gently prising apart and inspecting the anaerobic chunks. A glint and an unusual shape caught my eye.

I touched the top of the mystery object gingerly with a finger. Metal. Copper alloy most likely then. Time to be especially careful. I broke further fragments of dirt away and the artefact came free. Now I knew what it was. Four scales of Lorica Squamata, still joined together, glistening in the afternoon sun, seeing light for the first time in hundreds of years. I felt my heart rate increase. This was it; this was the moment I found my dream object, and it was perfect!

I savoured it alone for a moment more, then called out to Rachel our supervisor to come and see. My tone betrayed me – the other excavators heard my happy shout and then looked up at my beaming face. I was soon surrounded by an enthusiastic throng of diggers, sharing my excitement and joy. Then the practicalities: Rachel logging the find, me holding the GPS staff triumphantly at the site where my block of dirt had originated to pinpoint it, and surrendering the armour scales to Rachel’s care to be cleaned and conserved by professionals. Finally, back to my barrow and a fresh bucket of anaerobic blocks to process.

So what next? Well, personally, I’d really like to find an intaglio….. Sally Volunteer

26th June 2024

Part of reason that the anaerobic deposits have such good archaeological preservation conditions is due to a number of microorganisms living inside the soil. These microorganisms are very picky about the environment they live in, and thus the soil needs to have a suitable pH and geochemical makeup in order for them to survive. Luckily, we fit within these parameters here at Magna. Moreover, many of the microorganisms that eat organic material cannot live in an anaerobic environment. These microorganisms are present within higher deposits at our site, but not within our anaerobic deposits. And so, besides all the wonderful leather and wood artifacts we’ve been finding in our anaerobic ditch, we’ve also had lots of bugs, twigs, moss, and even some leaves!

These organic materials, though perhaps less showy than their man-made counterparts, demonstrate the potential preservation levels available within Magna Fort as a whole; however, these amazing organic materials are at risk as climate change continues to alter the soil. Franki

25th June 2024

We have officially reached the half way point in our 2024 excavation season and everyone is enjoying getting stuck into the first fully anaerobic, or oxygen-free, deposit onsite. These can be found in the large southern ditch and are easy to spot due to how black they are! This contains lots of preserved organic material including timber, hair moss and flooring material made up of compacted bracken and hay known as laminate. All of this indicates that there were once timber buildings nearby, which have then been demolished and the debris thrown into the ditch at a later date.

The real stars of the show however have been the preserved leather shoes that have been discovered in the last couple of days.

We currently have the remains of 5 shoes from within the ditch, including some which would have originally belonged to children, based on their size. We’ve found a mix of both soles and uppers from different shoes and can already see features such as hobnails in the soles, eyelets for laces and stitching along the seams in some places. I can’t wait to learn more about these artefacts as they go through conservation and are assessed by our specialists! Rachel

21st June 2024

Theres been some end of period excitement for our period six crew! Volunteer Andrew tells us more about his discovery…

It wasn’t until Rachel announced that I had just found the first wooden artefact at Magna Roman Fort since excavations began last year, that I really began to appreciate the significance of the small, worked object I held in my hand. Initially believed to be part of a wooden needle case, it was found in the damp, semi-anaerobic soil of the double ditch feature to the south of the Vallum. As we worked our way through the levels, digging a spade depth at a time, the trench was also beginning to yield other finds. Glass, sherds of pot and pieces of wood were emerging, all of which served to raise the spirits of the hard-working volunteers after a considerable amount of digging and wheelbarrowing with little to show in the context (finds) bags. Just when you think the Roman god of finds isn’t smiling on you, a moment like this comes along. It’s just one of the many wonderful things that drives volunteers to become veterans and return year after year. Andrew Volunteer

We have now sent this artefact to our curator so it can begin the conservation process and have now learnt that it is actually a beautifully worked piece of antler! When complete this object would have been a dice cup used by soldiers playing games to keep themselves entertained when off-duty. Rachel

19th June 2024

In this second week of Period 6, our fantastic volunteers have made some speedy progress into our stone capped drain and double ditch feature to the south of the Vallum.

The drain is certainly not what we were expecting at the base of a ditch – especially the size of it! We are still interpreting how these both features relate to Hadrian’s Wall and the wider frontier landscape, but hopefully as we continue to excavate this trench, we will find out more answers.

We have also had some visitors to see our progress in the trenches, so we have been glad of a few drier days!

If you would like to visit the archaeology trench side, we have access to ticket holders of the Roman Army Museum on Monday – Friday at 10am – 4pm. And remember, if you would like to attend one of our Accessible Trench Talks, the next one will be Monday 1^st July where you get an up-to-date summary of the current archaeology and progress so far this season! Sophie

17th June 2024

The trench has extended even further! Our current area of excavation now stretches approximately 67 meters long. Our new extension is revealing some interesting archaeology as well. We’ve de-turfed both sides of our mystery double ditch and are working our way into the fresh ground. The northern counterpart of our double ditch holds a large stone drain that’s capped with quite a bit of hard clay and large rubble – luckily this is no match for our tough volunteers who are scraping away to reveal more and more of this drain. We’ve haven’t quite begun on the southern ditch, but hope to begin soon, however it’s a bit flooded at the moment… But no amount of flooding could compare to the pool that used to be the Vallum. It’s easy to see how this massive ditch would have once been quite the deterrent for those trying to sneak through the Wall. Nevertheless, hopefully we’ll have a dry spell that will allow us to dig in the Vallum once again. Until then, we’ll stick with our double ditch system and southern mound of the Vallum. Franki

11th June 2024

It’s the start of a new period and we are finally getting some more dry weather, giving this new Period 6 team a chance to continue the efforts and hard work of those who came before. We’ve been able to remove the post-medieval drains in the vallum (now that they’ve stopped flowing with water!) and start excavating some of the earlier deposits that have filled in the ditch over the centuries. We’re even starting to find small pieces of preserved wood and bark in this material which is a promising sign for the preservation conditions to come!

One group of volunteers have also taken on the challenge of finding the double ditch feature to the south of the vallum; this has only become visible in recent years due to the impacts of climate change on the site and so is a complete mystery in terms of what we might find there. Already though we have had our first small find from this area, a small section of copper alloy rod, so I’m confident we will be able to unravel the history of this feature and how it fits into the wider Magna story. Rachel 

7th June 2024 #NationalVolunteering Week

Thank you so much to our Period 5 digging crew! Some challenging weather was braved – we couldn’t have done it with out you! Sophie

6th June 2024 #NationalVolunteering Week

Volunteers’ Week celebrates the amazing contributions volunteers make to communities across the UK. It’s a chance to recognise, celebrate and thank the UK’s incredible volunteers for all they contribute to our local communities, the voluntary sector, and society as a whole.

Here at Magna, all of our incredible volunteers are the reason we are able to learn so much about this frontier landscape. Our excavators and post-excavators who turn up with so much enthusiasm and dedication (come rain or shine!) are well worth celebrating!

We are welcoming in over 460 volunteers this year alone, we couldn’t do it with out you all! In recognition of our volunteers, Michael, one of our period 5 crew, gives us an insight into a day volunteering on the dig at Magna… Sophie

From a volunteer, various versions of “What’s this?”

Rachel:  “It’s stone. (Snap) Yep, ironstone.  It’s sometimes black and curved, and can be tricky.”

Franki:  “It’s a rock, even though it’s small and square.  It’s a very nice rock, but it is a rock.”

Dr Birley: “It’s whinstone , from the quarry area over there.  It can be blue or green, looks quite nice, but it is whinstone.”

The professionals are very patient with the volunteers (including diving into the activities at hand) and it is delightful when they take a few moments to explain why what you’ve found is not a FIND.

And sometimes that explanation becomes an interesting lesson.  From the north mound…

The photo shows the changes through time of this area.  From the top there is the modern natural of green grass and black turf, followed by a mix of red and white clay with some stones, and the bottom layer is a white-black substance.  Going below the modern, from the profile we can tell the Romans built a mound (the clay, which being a mix of colors and stones indicates piling rather than natural) onto the grass present about 2000 years ago (the white-black is the grass from that time, long rotted).

So we have determined a Roman earthen rampart!

This may not be a find that will fit inside a plastic bag for review, but it is important to understanding the big picture of the site and would be a very satisfying end to the work in this area.  Photograph, document, and let’s move on to another section.  But instead, the lesson here continues….

In the right of the photo is a boxy shape in the lower layer.  

From a volunteer: Box shapes are not natural, and indicate something, yes? 

No.  Looking up the profile from the “box” it can be seen that the shape, color and size continue to the natural.

We have determined a modern (since it goes to the natural) animal burrow!

There is more to learn from this experience than one thinks.  A lot more!

Week One for Period Five has come to a close, and in addition to big-picture finds and fascinating lessons there have been wonderful small finds- Samian ware, Black ware, CBM, glass, and linch pins are just a few of the items revealed and placed into the finds bags.

There have also been a lot of turf, rocks, and clay.  Along with turf, rocks, and clay.  Things that MUST be moved so the understanding of the site improves and more finds are available to later efforts. Michael Volunteer

3rd June 2024 #NationalVolunteering Week

We’re nearing the halfway point of this excavation season and have been making some great progress with our amazing team of volunteers! Whilst we definitely do not want to wish the season away, some of you may already be dreaming of Magna 2025…

If you are thinking of volunteering with us as part of next years digging crew, more information can be found here.

And if you need any more persuading, period 4 volunteer Sara shares her experience on the excavations…

Magna did not disappoint.  What a privilege to be given the opportunity to excavate and to be part of such a wonderful team of archeologists and other volunteers.  As a new recruit and on my first excavation ever, everyone was so friendly, kind and generous in spirit, sprinkled with patience and understanding when questions with fairly obvious answers were asked.  My learning curve was steep and fuelled with excitement when something was unearthed or even a hint of what we might expect to find. Hadrians Wall, magical, mystical, bleak and rugged fuelled my imagination.  So much history and peeling back those layers of time can keep you awake at night if you let it.  

I thought I knew what to expect, probably a romantic notion of living in the past, or breaking a curse.  These notions were quickly quashed when we were asked to choose our equipment (buckets, spades, kneelers, trowels, hand shovels, sponges and brushes) on the first day and head out across the boggy field, dodging the sheep and newborn lambs.  No hanging about, straight into the mud, digging turf, shifting top soil, then onto hands and knees looking for cobbles.  We were on top of the mound heading towards the Vallum.  Very quickly layers of clay became interesting and as an artist the colours of these layers fascinating and beautiful.  Layer by layer we dug down looking at the sections of field drains appearing, hoping to find something bright and sparkly.  Sadly not for me, but finds of other kinds, new friendships, new ways of seeing and looking, a deeper love for the past, that wonderful feeling of being part of a team with a common interest and the thrill of learning new skills and gaining new knowledge. 

Thank you all for a wonderful fun two weeks, the lectures, continuous history lessons, the  walk to Thirlwall Castle, tea and cake in Greenhead, the site visit to Vindolanda,  biscuits, hot drinks, wet sieving looking for seeds and insects, but most of all the opportunity to be part of something very special. 

I would love to return next year, so fingers crossed.

Good luck period five, I’m watching the diary with interest. Sara Volunteer

31st May 2024

Despite a surprisingly soggy couple of weeks, we’ve made good progress onsite, working our way from the north end of the trench into the vallum. The first part of the monument we uncovered was the foundation for the north mound. Originally this would have been a turf rampart running along the north edge of the ditch, with an equivalent mound on the southern side. Now all that remains is a clay ridge running across the trench which we have dug into to reveal all the different individual clay chunks used in its construction.

Continuing to the south, a collection of extra ditches between the north mound and the vallum have taken us by surprise! Its not often that evidence of later activity is found on the sides of the vallum, but here small drainage channels and larger enclosure ditches have been dug. We are still excavating these to see how they all related to one another and what they were used for but clearly this was a busy area in the later Roman period!

Some intrepid volunteers have started venturing into the main body of the vallum as well. While its early days yet in terms of getting into the (hopefully) anaerobic Roman deposits, we have uncovered some more recent history of the site, with a stone box drain from the late 19^th century running through the middle of the vallum. This has proved to be very useful as it is still flowing and has helped us in managing the water flowing into this area of site while we continue to excavate. We have our fingers crossed for a dry weekend and a lower water table onsite so we can continue heading deeper into the vallum! Rachel

29th May 2024

A soggy few days have welcomed in period 5, but that isn’t enough to dampen our spirits! Michael, one of our period 5 team, keeps us posted on these first two days…

To get through a few common misconceptions first…

Archaeology is glamorous treasure hunting:  Ha, no, at least not always in the entertainment sense (although that does seem to happen on occasion).

Archaeology is easy: Again, ha, no.

If it is not glamorous or easy, then archaeology is boring: And again, ha, no.

Early days at Magna for Period Five have been rain, turf removal, rain, and turf removal.  Definitely not glamorous, definitely not easy, but most definitely not boring.

The rain has been unfortunate, in that work in already cleared parts of the site is not possible due to deep water in the trenches; the sump pumps have been going overtime to try and drain these areas for us.  The rain also cancelled a few hours’ work on an afternoon.

The turf removal is a “someone has to get it done” task, so that new areas are cleared for us, or later groups, to begin to understand more what was happening with the vallum.  After great efforts a corner revealed what I will call a “possible feature”, a jumble of stone nestled in what looks an intersection of ditches.  A road or walkway, perhaps, considering what seemed a lot of cobble-type-stones dug through to get here?

During our weather-cancelled afternoon we were treated to a lecture from Rachel about the 2023 Magna dig, followed by a closed session with Marcus the Medicus lecturing on Roman medical practices.  Over three hours flew by, and we wanted them to last even longer.

So to date: Classroom time.  Physical labor.  And no treasure.

Also known as: Marvellous information, entertaining and extremely well presented.  Very satisfying effort made enjoyable by a great group of volunteers.  And even a rock jumble and a cobblestone are treasure when you consider the possibility they were placed by Roman soldiers nearly 2000 years ago.

The remainder of our fortnight will be rather exciting! Michael Volunteer 

28th May 2024

As we’ve welcomed our wonderful period 5 team to the trenches, Melanie, our period 4 volunteer reflects on her two weeks at Magna…

Digging at Magna was my first time as an excavator (I sound like a JCB!).  I thought I’d be digging on the fort itself and was looking forward to finding walls and floors – didn’t fancy turf digging – only to arrive and find we would be firstly expanding the trench over the vallum mound and into and through the vallum itself, and then secondly, exploring features seen in the ground.

I ended up exploring what looked like a ditch running through the vallum mound which then didn’t seem to have defined edges.  I did find a couple of bits of black burnished ware, so exciting – the last time someone held that before me was around 1700 years ago…  More pits and more ditches kept emerging and Rachel has the unenviable task of trying to piece them all together to work out what came first, what happened next, by whom and when, throughout the 400 plus year period we were digging through – not to mention the modern land drains that were crisscrossing the ground, although we made good use of the beautiful Victorian stone drain running through the vallum ditch when we were rained off on our eighth and ninth days!  Not many finds but, as well as the black burnished ware and some CBM, I found a small piece of fine-ware – what’s that doing with soldiers in the vallum?!

It has been the most unbelievable experience.  I am totally hooked, even if I never get to dig a wall! I will be doing my best to return next year. 😊 Melanie Volunteer

25th May 2024

Simon, one of our period 4 team, gives us an insight into what life in the trenches has been like during the past two weeks and sets up the challenge for period 5!

2024 is my fourth year excavating with the Vindolanda Trust and this year I decided to try something a little different with the excavations at Magna and it most certainly was!

Our two weeks were all about features related to the area of the Vallum. Ditches, pits, drains, and cuts, and how they all relate to each other in a sort of three-dimensional puzzle covering several centuries of human activity.

Interpreting what these features were is no easy task, sometimes it felt as if every scrape of the trowel threw up a new puzzle that led us in another direction, but that’s archaeology, you find what you find!

I can safely say I learned a lot, thanks in no small part to the archaeological team who guided, suggested, explained, and directed us with great patience.

One of the reasons I enjoy volunteering with the Vindolanda Trust is because of the people, staff and volunteers alike. I’ve made many friends during my time volunteering and the staff really make you feel part of the team.

I hope to make it back in 2025 and look forward to reading about how the excavations progress for the rest of the year. Good luck to period 5, hopefully you can answer some of the puzzles period 4 has left for you to untangle! Simon Volunteer

24th May 2024

Thank you to our smashing Period 4 team, who, despite the wet weather were all smiles! Sophie

23rd May 2024

Sadly, the soil around Magna Fort has now been aerobic (oxygenated) for over six months. The soil went aerobic on December 12^th, 2023 and has not returned to its anaerobic (oxygen-free) environment yet. Last spring, we witnessed a similar phenomenon, where the soil went aerobic for about two months before returning to an anaerobic environment at the end of April; however, we have not witnessed such a dramatic shift in soil condition since we first installed WallE. The current soil condition at Magna is incredibly worrying, and we hope it shifts back to its anaerobic environment soon for the sake of the archaeology. Franki

20th May 2024

We’ve hit an exciting milestone here at Magna: it’s pot washing time! For the past six weeks, our excavation has unearthed bags and bags of finds, and now it’s time to dive into the first steps of the post-excavation process. Let’s take you behind the scenes!

Step 1: Washing the Finds

First things first, we wash the finds. Each bag gets emptied and carefully cleaned. But what’s in these bags? While pottery is often the #maincharacter, we also unearth a fascinating variety of other artefacts. Think pieces of slag, glass fragments, coal, CBM (ceramic building material) and iron objects like nails. We occasionally find more recent items like post-Medieval pottery, modern glass, and even clay pipes! Each find gets a gentle brush—my personal favourite is the pink toothbrush.

Step 2: Organizing the Finds

After their spa treatment, the finds are placed on clean, carefully labelled trays. Why the meticulous labelling? Because it’s crucial to keep the context intact—losing these labels would be like losing the pieces of a puzzle. Each section of the tray will be dedicated to one of the following categories: iron, glass, charcoal, CBM, and pottery (rims and body sherds). This will facilitate the sorting and bagging processes later on.

Step 3: Drying Out

Once washed, the finds are left to dry for a few days to a week. This prepares them for the next stage: finds sorting. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue our post-excavation journey over the next few days! Cristina

16th May 2024

It’s been great to welcome our first post-excavation volunteer onto the project this period, Sandy has been working hard in the excavation centre to process our finds and soil samples from the first few periods. There have already been some lovely sherds of pottery and pieces of glass discovered from across the site and its always satisfying to finally see the finds clean and mud free. These can be crucial to dating the different features on the site, particularly the single sherd of Iron Age pottery, identifiable through the different techniques used to make the vessel, was the final piece of the puzzle needed to date the enclosure ditch!

Meanwhile the rest of the team have been doing some heavy lifting up on site, cutting back the western edge of the trench and wrestling some pretty hefty reeds in the process! This is to better understand some of the features to the north of the vallum that were continuing beyond the trench limit. In typical archaeological fashion, we were also starting to suspect that the potential causeway over the vallum, which would have allowed troops to access the milecastle from Magna fort, was actually just a little to the left underneath this area. We’re now getting back into excavating along the north edge of the vallum and are starting to build up a picture of later Roman activity and industry happening in this space, so watch this space for more updates as we learn more. Rachel

13th May 2024

We’ve welcomed our period 4 team into the trenches, and they’ve made speedy work already! Sophie

10th May 2024

Well done to our period 3 team – you smashed it!

10th May 2024

Period 3 volunteer Agnes shares her experience with us!

Two weeks can absolutely fly by when you’re having fun, which has happened over the last fortnight at Magna. I work as a data analyst normally so working with my hands is always a great change, particularly with the chance of finding cool stuff! 

We’ve been lucky with the weather and other than one very soggy afternoon, spring has sprung and it’s been caps and sun cream. I’ve excavated once before at Vindolanda but this was different. Fewer individual finds and more big questions about what’s going on, “why is that ditch there” and “what was that pit for”?

I think the point of this diary is not only to inform people about it progress but also to encourage people to apply to come and dig in the future. To that end, I won’t talk about the finds (although I did find a cracking flint arrowhead just a few inches below the turf). Instead, I’ll talk about the people.

There’s something about the type of people who volunteer their time to come and do manual labour, for the chance of helping to unearth the secrets of Hadrian’s Wall. I have rarely in my life come across such a lovely and supportive group of interesting people. The same had been true here, and when I dug at Vindolanda two years ago. From the first day, everyone is keen to help one another and work together. The self-organised excavators dinner in the second week (at the Milecastle Inn, of course) is always a highlight.

If you’re on the fence about volunteering, maybe not sure if it’s for you, I cannot encourage you enough. If like me you work for a large organization then you could use volunteering leave for part of the period, meaning less of a drain on annual leave. This is such a rewarding opportunity not only to try archaeology but also to meet people who will become lifelong friends. Agnes Volunteer

9th May 2024

This week we’ve carried out two types of geoarchaeological sampling which will help us learn more about the site’s history as well as its future. To learn about the past, we completed another round of pXRF sampling within our current area of excavations. pXRF (portable X-Ray Fluorescence) is a great tool that analyzes the geochemical makeup of the soil. Areas with human activity tend to have different chemical markers, and this gives us insight into different activities that might have been happening on site.

Prior to stripping the grass, we took pXRF samples of the topsoil over the milecastle and down across the Vallum. Now, we also have samples of the subsoil in these locations so that we might compare the geochemical makeup of the soil. Now, to learn about the potential future of Magna, we started to map the peatbog near the fort so that we might better understand its decay over the next couple years. While Wall-E (our weather monitoring station and probe array) does an excellent job of monitoring the soil, we wanted to explore other methods of gathering data as well. This map will provide a visual of the bog and is an easy way to check the bog’s health in the future. Franki

7th May 2024

Ditches are still our focus as we enter week 6 and they’re only getting bigger as we have officially made it into the vallum! It’s still early days yet but we have already been able to identify some of the features we were hoping to find in this trench. The remnants of the north mound have already been uncovered running parallel with the line of the vallum, visible in the trench as a broad pinkish-orange band of clay.

Originally this would have been a broad rampart built out of turf but over the centuries this has been worn down to leave only its clay foundations for us to find. There are also traces of its partner, the south mound, showing up at the end of the trench but this will have to wait until we extend our trench to see it in full. Some of our intrepid volunteers are also heading into the vallum itself, working to remove the topsoil covering the upper layers of backfilling. This area is already proving to have darker, wetter material than the surrounding ramparts, so we have high hopes for organic preservation conditions once we reach the base! Rachel

3rd May 2024

This week we’ve started wet sieving some of the samples we’ve taken on site as part of our post-excavation processing. Due to the large number of pits and ditches we’ve already had in our five weeks of excavation, we’ve garnered quite a large amount of environmental samples. The wet sieving process is just like what we did during our Stirring the Pot event back in February, but now we get to do it outside in the sun! In just a few afternoons we’ve processed over a 100L of environmental samples – and the results look promising. The samples have come from some of the ditches and pits in the northern end of the site, just south of the milecastle. Soon, we’ll also add on pottery washing to our post-excavation rota, so everyone gets the chance to take part in some aspects of post-excavation processing. Franki

1st May 2024

One of our Period 3 volunteers, Hanne, shares what her first three days of excavation with the Magna Project has entailed…

Day 1: Being shown around the site – it’s so much more complex and interesting than I had anticipated. For two weeks I’ll be part of a long, future project. I feel lucky to be part of it. I’ve met other great volunteers, including from Australia and France.

Day 2: Working with my dig partner we moved stones and soil, with some soil going for environmental sampling. Climate change on my mind, yesterday I stood on the grass around a smallish mound – then was amazed that we were all standing on ground that had lowered through drying out and something was on top of the raised area protecting it. It made me think of a TV program I’d seen recently, showing the tundra melting… I wonder about the people who lived here so long ago in the landscape, and made so little impact on the world – did they appreciate it more or busy surviving?

Day 3: There is a friendly team on the dig – we hear lambs and skylarks. In the afternoon we had a new experience outside in sun, stirring soil and water in large bucket with a wooden spoon and then sieved out floating particles from soil samples before going back to the field. I helped with removing thick chunks of turf and adding soft soil to the growing pile. Hanne Volunteer

29th April 2024

We have welcomed in our Period 3 volunteers at the Magna excavations this morning, and looking forward to working with them to (hopefully!) answer some of the questions that are being raised at this frontier landscape.

If you would like to dig a little deeper into the archaeology of the Magna Project, we have published the first in a series of 5 annual excavation reports. This report is available to download as a free PDF. Simply click this link to obtain your digital copy of the 90 page report. For sherd nerds, Cristina has a look at the pottery assemblage from milecastle 46, Rachel takes us through the activity at the site from the 2nd Century to Medieval period of occupation, and Franki sifts through the soil to understand what is going from an environmental perspective.

A limited number of full colour printed copies are available to purchase. These are £15 and can be found at the Roman Army Museum shop and also via the Vindolanda Trust online shop. Sophie

26th April 2024

That’s wrap for Period 2. Thank you to this fabulous group of volunteers. We really appreciate all your hard work over the last two weeks. Here they all are pictured on the “Milecastle Mound” the bund feature that we created in the landscape after backfilling the Milecastle 46 excavation area. We look forward to meeting our next group of volunteers on Monday as we continue our journey of exploration and research. Sonya

25th April 2024

As Period 2 is drawing to a close, I think its safe to say that ditches have been the defining features of these two weeks! The Roman ditch next to the milecastle gave us a final surprise as we finished excavating it. As we found the end of the ditch outside the milecastle wall a posthole and signs of second ditch leading away to the west emerged. Meanwhile the second ditch to the south has proven to be not just pre-Hadrianic but pre-Roman entirely, curving round to form an enclosure that would have occupied the hilltop before the Roman army arrived. A single sherd of Iron Age pottery from within the fill was the final clue to confirm this date and we are now keeping a close eye out for any evidence of buildings inside the area. The mysterious stone structure on the east of the trench has also turned out to be part of a ditch running south down the side of the trench, though we are still figuring out exactly what it was used for and why it had flagstones capping it.

A group of intrepid volunteers have also started work in the trench the cuts across the vallum yesterday, led by Andrew, in search of yet more cobbled roads. This area got off to a surprising start however as they have already found a stone lined well. I’m excited to see what might be waiting for us at the base after the wood, rope, and leather we found in last year’s surprise well! Rachel

22nd April 2024

One of our wonderful Period 2 excavators shares the experience of week one on the dig…

As a first time excavator I wondered if two weeks would feel like an eternity…how wrong I was!  Week one flew in and was a great experience.  Everyone in the Team makes the most of it and the enthusiasm is infectious from Professionals and Volunteers alike.

Personally I was excited to find some black burnished ware and to spend the first week uncovering part of the military road….mud, cobbles and big stones is a brief summary of events!

Tips for others from my experience:
– Check your trousers for stitched seams on the knees…these will become uncomfortable very quickly
– Bring tissues each day…your nose will run from all the bending over
– If possible stay somewhere with a bath….it certainly aids recovery and eases the muscles after a good days graft.

I’m looking forward to all that unfolds in the remaining time … and thereafter from those who continue the excavations.  It’s great to be part of something that’s not about individual achievement, but more a jigsaw puzzle of lots of pieces and people, making up the whole experience and picture. Lezley Volunteer

19th April 2024

It’s finally been nice enough to fly our drone, and as you can see, the trench from the milecastle has expanded somewhat! Working to the south of the milecastle, the Period 1 and Period 2 teams have been excavating ditches, road surfaces, pits and cobbles. Check back in for more updates soon! Sophie

18th April 2024

The external area of the milecastle is really coming to life this week as we’ve nearly finished pulling off the remaining topsoil in our current excavation area. We have two ditch features – one of which terminates just before southeastern corner of the milecastle and the other going across the length of our excavation area – which are proving to be rather interesting. It seems likely that they predate our milecastle which suggests that we might have a had a Roman marching camp in this area. We expected to get pre-Hadrianic features as we got further south towards Magna fort, but certainly not this early in our project! They’re still under excavation so we’re hoping to learn more about them and maybe get more substantial finds out of them. Either way, I’d say they’re my favorite features of the excavation season thus far. We also have an unexpected flagstone surface in the trench which is proving to be quite mysterious. It’s still early days on this feature, so hopefully we will have more answers to its purpose soon. It’s also looking like we finally have the military road! Of course, it’s on the very southern edge of our current area of excavation, but we’re glad to have finally found it. We know that Magna has a lot of quirks that aren’t elsewhere seen on Hadrian’s Wall, but it would have been extremely unusual to not have the military road running its course parallel to Hadrian’s Wall. Otherwise, we have a few additional pits, cuts, and (of course) more cobbles which we are currently investigating.

The group this period has had some wonderful sunny weather which has helped spur them along, but unfortunately this afternoon has been a bit of a wash out. Luckily Dr. Cristina popped over from Vindolanda to teach them all about different pottery types you can find in Roman Britain. We’ve already found quite a variety of pottery on site so its good that we all get a brush up on our various wares. Hopefully tomorrow and next week we’ll be back into the sunshine so we can check out all of our exciting features with renewed vigour! Franki

17th April 2024

Magna period 2 volunteers have brought the sunshine with them! The top soil is being beautifully cleaned back and there are some exciting features being uncovered. By excavating outside of the milecastle, we are getting an intriguing look at this wider frontier landscape. Bring on the next few weeks! Sophie

16th April 2024

Our new period has got off to an exciting start so far with our first official small find of the year! One of our eagle-eyed volunteers spotted this beautiful gold-in-glass bead as they were digging, much to everyone’s excitement. This brings the total number of beads found around milecastle 46 to four and adds to the picture of the types of goods that were being traded through the Wall at our site. These beads are often associated with the later Roman period in Britain and were made by applying a thin sheet of gold to a glass tube and then encasing it in a final coat of glass to seal the metal in place.

The weather is also starting to feel more spring-like at last with blue skies and sunshine instead of rain. While the wind is still cold the excavation area is finally getting a chance to start drying out, so hopefully there will be a few less swimming pools onsite soon! Rachel

12th April 2024

Congrats to our Period 1 team for a great couple of weeks! Finishing off their fortnight with some dramatic clouds, we’ve loved digging beside you all!

Each excavation is a testament to the teamwork of our excavators, our visitors, Dig Diary readers, and everyone else who has and continues to support us as we uncover more of this ancient landscape. Thank you!

11th April 2024

Our fantastic Period 1 Team have just one more day of digging until they hand over the trowel to the Period 2 Team, and they have smashed it!

For the past two weeks, the team have been focusing on digging down into some intriguing features situated outside of the southern wall of milecastle 46. At the end of 2023, we had uncovered the beginnings of an East-West ditch and a large rubble filled pit. These have continued to be excavated as we’ve started this 2024 season, which has now revealed an unusual linear stone feature running close by across the trench. We aren’t sure what the purpose of this feature is, but we hope the mystery will be solved as the season continues.

However, Period 1 hasn’t all been a conundrum as our excavation team have been working hard on two large, intercutting pits at the South-Eastern corner of the milecastle. One of these pits contained substantial sherds of amphorae, or dolia, a Roman vessel used for the storage of and transport of goods. As we understand, this milecastle was being used as a customs post along the edge of Empire and so, it is not a mystery as to why we would find this around the milecastle. I hope whoever was transporting this wasn’t in too much trouble when it got dropped!  

Finally, a very surprising stone structure in the edge of the trench has appeared, with a channel leading into it that is tantalisingly black and waterlogged. Could this be Magna’s first foray into the anaerobic?! Watch this space…  Sophie

9th April 2024

As the current weather is better suited to ducks than archaeologists, we wanted to take a moment to highlight a brand-new activity where you can experience life in the trenches, without accessing the archaeological site. Launched on the 8^th April, exclusively at the Roman Army Museum for 2024, is our Accessible Trench Talks.

Our Accessible Trench Talks provide the opportunity to experience live archaeological excavations with a multi-sensory experience. You will get an update on the ongoing live excavations of Magna Fort, Milecastle 46 and the Vallum from our brand new, accessible, activity centre. Ask questions and experience a bespoke, interactive map of the excavation site using our new sensory projector.

This will increase access to even more people and we were delighted to welcome lots of visitors yesterday for our first trench talk.

The site is currently inaccessible due to the recent torrential rain, and so if you would like to know more about our excavations, please join us for the next Accessible Trench Talk on Monday 22^nd April at 11:45am and 2:15pm.  Sophie

The Vindolanda Trust is delighted to be a WelcoME venue where you can use their app to book your visit and let us know your accessibility needs ahead of time. If you have any questions, or would like further information, please check out our accessibility resources, or contact sophiewestlake@vindolanda.com

5th April 2024

Despite our rain day earlier this week, we’ve had a successful first week of the 2024 excavation season! In a shocking turn of events, we’ve even had a bit of sun today (though, of course, it was matched by a steady wind). Nevertheless, we’re noticing some features in the area that we’re all excited to tackle next week. It even looks like we might have a waterlogged/semi-anaerobic fill in a ditch just east of the milecastle. I’m intrigued by the possible usages for this ditch and am hoping that by the end of next week we’ll have a few answers. At the very least, I’ll definitely have a few buckets of environmental samples for later wet sieving. Beyond that, there’s a few pits and otherwise cut features – we’ve also found quite a few sherds of black burnished ware pottery. Based on the rims, it looks like we have the remains of two separate vessels. Overall, it’s a very solid start to our season and I’m hoping we can keep up this momentum in the following weeks! Franki

Alongside our crack team of excavator’s, we have another special member of the Magna Team that we would like to shout about as they’re celebrating their 2^nd birthday tomorrow! Our weather station and probe system at Magna, affectionately known as Wall-E, was installed on 6^th April 2022 and has been working tirelessly since then to collect crucial data which allows us to better understand what is happening to the soil beneath our feet.

The UK has just experienced our wettest recorded 18 months (which you’ll know first hand if you visited us last year!) and with this, Wall-E has been able to record the implications of this more extreme climate. Crucially, what we are starting to see is that these heavy rainfalls are increasing both the acidity and levels of oxygen in the soil at Magna Fort. These conditions are far from ideal for the preservation of buried archaeology and is putting at risk the conservation of key organic materials such as wooden writing tablets and leather shoes. This material culture gives us an unparalleled insight into the ancient communities stationed at Magna Fort, so without them, we lose a vital knowledge of our heritage.

This environmental monitoring will be ongoing throughout the Magna Project, giving us over a million data points by 2027. We hope with this information, we can make the best decisions, preserving the past for future generations.

So, we would like to wish a very Happy Birthday Wall-E! Sophie

3rd April 2024

It’s been great to get back into the trenches and start excavating with our volunteers, and already we’re starting to see some interesting features emerging from beneath the topsoil. The fickle British weather has caught up with us today though and we’ve had to call things off, we would need wetsuits and snorkels to work in parts of the site in these conditions! Wet weather days are just part of life working outside in Northumberland and there’s always a programme of alternative activities waiting in case we need them.

Today we have marched east along the Wall to our sister site of Vindolanda where the volunteers got a glimpse into some of the pottery analysis with Cristina, who is working on the assemblage from the 2023 Vindolanda excavation, and a site tour with Andrew discussing the history of the fort and its excavation. We’ve also made use of the lecture facilities here (though we’ll have our own very soon!) to give talks about last year’s excavations of milecastle 46 and the environmental monitoring that is a key part of the research at Magna. All of this helps to put the current excavations in context and highlight how our volunteers’ work on site is adding to the story of Magna and the Roman frontier. Rachel

1st April 2024

It’s been an exciting day as we welcome in our Period 1 team to begin the 2024 Vindolanda Trust excavation season here at Magna Fort. The day has already gotten off to a rocky start as we move southwards from milecastle 46 into you guessed it… more cobbles! Puns aside, whilst the sun hasn’t made an appearance, the rain has stayed (mostly) at bay and the team were able to put trowel to soil as we begin to uncover this frontier landscape southwards of milecastle 46. Keep checking back here for more updates throughout the season! Sophie

25th March 2024

There’s just a week to go before we kick off the 2024 season at Magna, and we’ve been hard at work out in the field getting everything ready for the new excavations, with two new trenches de-turfed and ready to go. The first is an extension of last year’s trench to the south, allowing us to further investigate the space between the milecastle and the vallum and the road network surrounding milecastle 46. Our second trench continues this move south, back towards the main fort, and runs across the full width of the vallum defences. I’m hoping this will let us learn more about the enigmatic vallum diversion visible at Magna. If all goes to plan this trench should also include the vallum crossing that would have linked Magna fort to the milecastle so I’m keeping my fingers crossed for that!

That’s not the only change onsite though, as we’ve had to say farewell to milecastle 46 and backfill the area to protect the archaeological remains. We couldn’t let the milecastle disappear from view completely though, so an earthwork has been built up to mark the line of the walls. This restores the eastern half of milecastle 46 to being a visible part of the landscape at Magna and is a fitting legacy for all of our volunteers’ hard work and the history they uncovered.

I’m so excited to welcome all of our volunteers old and new onto site this year, all that’s left to do is pray for some nice weather! Rachel

Stirring the Pot with Franki Gillis

It’s hard to believe we’re almost ready to begin our second year of excavations at Magna! Over the winter we have been busy researching our archaeological findings, cataloguing pottery from the milecastle, and processing all our (many) environmental samples. Last summer we gathered over 600L of environmental samples which all needed to be processed through a method called wet sieving. This method involves gently aggravating the dirt sample so that the larger bits of sediment sink to the bottom while seeds, bone micro-fragments, charred plant remains, and/or insects float. We then use a sieve to collect these interesting bits, let them dry, and send them off to a specialist for identification. Processing all these samples over the winter has been quite the feat, but luckily, we were able to get help from volunteers during our Stirring the Pot event in February. Our samples from the milecastle are still being analyzed by a specialist; however, we already know that we have some beetles and grain seeds from inside the well.

Overall, this information helps us learn about the historic environment and diet of the Romans. A great example this came out just this past winter when bed bugs were found at Vindolanda – evidently the residents of the fort faced similar issues to those we have today. Since the eastern half of the milecastle doesn’t contain any barracks it’s unlikely that we’ll also find bed bugs, but I’m hoping that we’ll find similarly significant eco-facts. Regardless, we’ll have a better idea of the living conditions inside the milecastle and what they might’ve had for lunch while on duty – it’s amazing what can be discovered inside the dirt! Franki

Introducing Dr Cristina Crizbasan

Introducing Dr Cristina Crizbasan our newest team member, who joins us as our resident pottery specialist and post excavation team leader. Cristina gained her PhD from the University of Exeter her specialism is in Batavian Pottery. Cristina’s relationship with the Vindolanda Trust began during her studies where as well as undertaking training in recording pottery assemblages, Cristina used a case study from Vindolanda Period 3 when we have at least one Batavian cohort in residence.  Over the next few years Cristina will study the fabric of the pottery to learn where it is made and supplied from; the spatial and chronological distribution across the sites, where are we finding the different types of pottery throughout the sites and how this changes over time. As well as using residue analysis to find more evidence of what was being consumed.

Find out about Cristina’s favourite find from last years excavations at Magna:

Hey everyone, it’s Cristina checking in, your friendly neighbourhood pottery nerd! I’m buzzing with excitement because we’re gearing up for the 2024 excavation seasons at both Vindolanda and Magna, and let me tell you, it’s going to be a wild ride! So, here’s the scoop: this will be my very first go-round with post-excavation within the Trust, and I couldn’t be more stoked. I officially joined the team back in October 2023, just in time to dive into the pottery assemblage from Magna’s 2023 dig.

Now, let me spill the tea on one of the coolest ceramic finds from last season: a black-burnished ware jar that had us all excited. What made it stand out? Well, besides its almost full completeness and the neat little repair job with a lead plug, there were some seriously intriguing details lurking beneath the surface.

See, while most people are wowed by the jar’s overall look, I’m all about those tiny nuances. Like, did you know that the obtuse angle of the lattice decoration screams “late Roman”? Yep, turns out it’s all in the angles! And don’t even get me started on the flange – super everted, which is a giveaway for the evolution of cooking pot rims over time. Mind-blowing stuff, right?

These little clues aren’t just fun facts – they’re our ticket to unlocking the mysteries of history. And trust me, I’m excited to see what other secrets Magna has up its sleeve this season. Bring it on!