13 Aug - 27 Nov 2009

This small exhibition contains ten significant objects chosen from the many hundreds excavated at Arbeia over the last ten years.

The artefacts on display demonstrate both the rich heritage of the site and the importance of the archaeological work that is carried outat Arbeia.Some of the items are on show for the first time, including the lead sealing that provided evidence that cavalry soldiers inhabited the fort in the 3rd century.

Excavations on the site since 1999 have revealed much about the layout of the fort, including 2nd and 3rd century barracks and a grand processional way leading to the headquarters building. Excavations this year focused on the area surrounding the fort, and archaeological finds included a Roman ‘key-ring', literally a finger ring which doubled as a key, and a stone wall suggesting the presence of a civilian building outside the fort walls.

At the southern end of the fort, excavations have reached the earliest Roman levels and even as far back as the Iron Age. An arrowhead in the display may well have been 2700 years old when it was picked up by a soldier and lost in a ditch. It was another 1800 years before it was found by modern archaeologists.