Period 8

Here we will post regular updates on the current excavations and post excavation taking place on site here at Magna Roman Fort during Period 8 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.

13th July

Can you believe we are already on to Week 14?! That means we are pretty much halfway through this year’s excavations wow, how time flies when you’re having fun in the trenches!

Our departing group did an absolutely fantastic job of clearing the decks and preparing a brilliant new pathway for our incoming volunteers. And my word, did last week deliver some spectacular breakthroughs! Over in the northern section of the praetorium, we were lucky enough to uncover what looks to be a surprise Roman kitchen , complete with part of a ladle! We found strong indications of burning and a very deliberate flue used to fuel the fire.

Right next to it, a larger mystery structure has appeared just to the north of the praetorium, boasting three massive foundations that could denote a granary or perhaps even a hospital. To top it all off, some lovely, large 4th-century street paving stones popped up right between this new mystery building and the praetorium, which was a truly pleasant surprise.

But now, the torch passes to our brand-new crew for their very first week! After a swift site tour from Franki and myself to get everyone orientated, it was straight into the digging for our eager new recruits.

Our main goals for the week ahead will be chasing the boundaries in the glorious sunshine which is forecast all week long (fingers crossed!), providing the perfect weather for the crew to extend the site eastwards and westwards. This will help us get a much clearer picture of where the boundaries of the praetorium and its walls actually lie.

A whole lot of sifting through the soot!  Part of the team has been bravely working their way through what seems to be Late Roman furnace waste. Quite a few of the crew are coming out looking like chimney sweeps, covered in soot, but it’s all to get down to the pristine, earlier Roman layers waiting just underneath!

Ultimately, our grand goal is to complete the entire footprint of the praetorium and finally contextualise how the bath suite fits within it. It’s an incredibly exciting puzzle to solve, and we’ve got the perfect crew to do it. Welcome aboard, team! Tommy

15th July

Magna is really starting to come to life and our excavations in the praetorium thus far have revealed four phases of stone construction! A large part of our goal as archaeologists is to try and piece together the many different walls, drains, and surfaces in order to form a comprehensive map of each phase of the building. In some cases it’s an easy solution, but often Magna feels like a giant jigsaw puzzle which needs solving when you’re missing half the pieces! These missing pieces can be attributed to later stone robbing, the 1830s antiquarian investigation, or even just the simple fact that a feature has not yet been found. Yet this puzzle is what so often intrigues archaeologists and site visitors alike. It’s an extremely rewarding feeling to finally put that last piece together, and that’s what we’re so diligently working towards, through rain and sunshine alike. Franki

If you haven’t already caught up with our third video update from the Trenches, make sure to check out the video below.

17th July

Having been set the challenge of expanding out to both the east and west of the exposed section praetorium’s north range, our period 8 volunteers have made great progress over the course of this week. Further layers of post-Roman occupation have been encountered overlying the praetorium, including a substantial drain, a rough cobbled surface and new walls to add to our 3D jigsaw puzzle.

Work has also continued in the southern range of the praetorium where more of the heating and drainage systems for the commander’s private baths have been revealed. The first in situ tile stacks for the Hadrianic hypocaust have been revealed, along with drains inserted into the base of the flues. This is a regional variation to the traditional method of bathhouse construction that the Romans developed, in response to the much wetter environment in northern Britain. Without these drains, rainwater and groundwater would seep down into the underfloor heating and create a very humid environment which would then cause the brick and tile to rot and crumble. The earliest bathhouse excavated at our sister site Vindolanda doesn’t have these drains so we can clearly see how the Romans are learning from and adapting to life in the Northumbrian climate! Rachel