Period 1

Here we will post regular updates on the current excavations and post excavation taking place on site here at Magna Roman Fort during Period 1 of the 2026 excavation season.

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.

6th April

A man dressed in Roman legionary kit with a metal helmet, segmented armour on his torso, red tunic and hobnail open weave leather sandals leans against a white pillar over looking a green field with blue skies in the background. There is a line of people walking towards him in the distance. — A legionary keeps a watchful eye on the excavators at Magna Roman Fort.

We’ve kicked off the 2026 season at Magna Roman Fort as the crew began by de-turfing in the southwest quadrant of the fort. Yesterday, the team were extending the trenches out to the north, shuttling wheelbarrows and already building up a nice spoil heap!

We were also joined by a Roman legionary for our Snap a Selfie event, part of our Teddy Bears Picnic running throughout April. He was keeping a very watchful eye on the diggers, as they came in for their tea break!

Speaking of tea breaks, the biscuit barrel is well and truly overflowing, which should keep everyone going through another sunny day of excavating. Sophie

A woman with blue hair and a red t-shirt is tipping a wheelbarrow full of turf and soil onto a spoil heap. The angle of the picture is from the ground up. There is cloudy sky in the background. — De-turfing begins!

8th April

We are thrilled to announce that the 2026 season at Magna has officially begun. We kicked things off with a wonderful team of international and national volunteers for Period 1. To escape the initial windswept chill of the Roman Army Museum surroundings, we gathered indoors for a warm meet-and-greet to introduce the team. Fortunately, the “windswept” part was short-lived, as we were later treated to glorious sunshine for the remainder of the week.

Once introductions were complete, we headed out into the crisp April air. Rachel led the way, sharing the rich history and archaeological significance of the site to set the stage as well as Franki discussing how we monitor the effect of climate change and the conditions underground before we reached for our spades and trowels. But first… a well-earned lunch!

Post-lunch, it was all hands-on deck. Our first task involved de-turfing and removing the topsoil from the southwest quadrant. This served as a perfect “welcome back” for our Magna veterans and a hands-on introduction to the world of archaeology for our newcomers. Monday afternoon was a whirlwind of activity, with wheelbarrows moving steadily between the site and the spoil heap. The progress made was truly commendable, and the team certainly earned a restful evening.

As the sun stayed with us through Tuesday and Wednesday, the pace didn’t slacken. The team made such efficient progress with the de-turfing that we have already transitioned to trowelling the area. We are already seeing results, including:

Mixed sherds of pottery , Various CBM (Ceramic Building Material) and the plentiful Roman nail or two. Its great to be finding such an array of Roman small finds already. There is so much more waiting to be uncovered. Stay tuned for further updates as we dig deeper into the season! Tommy

A group of people are excavating an archaeological trench in a row. Some are holding spades and some are holding trowels. There is a clean cut grass edge to the right of the image and the group are working on the left. In the background are the hills of Northumberland. — De-turfing and extended the trench northwards at Magna, we can’t wait to see what stories we discover!

10th April

Well, I can’t believe we have already reached the end of the first week of this year’s excavations here at Magna! It has been really great to get back out into the trench and continue to build on the results of last year’s work uncovering the structures of the SW quadrant.

So far this week the focus has been on expanding the trench to the north, and the team have already started to reveal some of the archaeological features in this area. The continuation of a very late earth and stone rampart, which may be associated with occupation on the site after the Romans left, has been located. It will be interesting to see how far up the west edge of the trench this extends and whether the whole fort platform was enclosed by the later inhabitants of Magna. Meanwhile some of the volunteers are exposing more of a large clay bank on the west edge of the trench – last year excavations revealed ovens built into this clay, suggesting it could be the internal rampart of the stone fort’s west wall, so there are high hopes for more of these in the near future! Elsewhere large areas of packed stone are starting to appear from beneath the topsoil – hardly surprising when we are digging in a space with lots of collapsed stone buildings! However, some of these may have been more intentionally laid down to form floors or road surfaces but we will have to wait until more is uncovered to see if that’s the case.

Roman mortaria rim with fingerprints and painted decoration.

It has also been really nice to see that most of our finds so far have been Roman – we’ve had pottery such as Samian and mortaria (including a piece with fingerprints on the rim!), but also small finds including coloured glass beads, bone decorations for furniture and even an ancient trowel!

Overall, it’s been a great start to the season, and I can’t wait to see what happens next week. Rachel