Archaeology

How did people live in the ‘Past’? Human beings need the same things to survive no matter when or where they live. They need shelter, warmth, food, water and companionship. Stephanie is an archaeologist. She looks for clues from the past. She can use these to find out how people lived.
How does Stephanie know where to look?
'Humps and bumps’ in a field can be a clue that walls are buried under the earth. This is an aerial photograph of Bremenium Roman fort at High Rochester. It was taken from an aeroplane. The ‘humps and bumps’ show up quite clearly.
	Farmers ploughing their fields often turn up pieces of broken pottery. Spindle whorls and pieces of pottery like these, have been dug up by the farmer at High Rochester.
Sometimes builders digging foundations for a new house or widening roads find archaeological remains. Laws in England mean that these have to be reported to the local council who will then decide the best way to look after the site.
Place-names on plans and maps can give clues. The word ‘chester’ means that there was once a Roman fort on the site. The name ‘Rochester’ is a clue that there is a fort to be found.
Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service. Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey.
Can Stephanie start digging straight away now that she’s found a site?
No!! First of all she has to get permission from the person who owns the land. There are laws to protect important archaeological sites like Bremenium. Once she has permission to excavate Stephanie and the rest of the team need to survey the site.
Why is it important to survey the site?
Stephanie needs to make sure she has an accurate plan of the whole site. On it she will mark any walls that she excavates and the places where finds are made. Once the team starts digging some of the 'humps and bumps' will be destroyed so it is important to record all the information about the site.
How do you survey a site?
Stephanie uses a theodolite to take the measurements for the plan.
	A beam of infrared light reflects from the theodolite to the prism on top of the pole Mark is holding. The theodolite measures the distance and angle between the theodolite and the pole.
Stephanie can use the theodolite to record the height and position of the 'humps and bumps'. A theodolite is a very modern way to survey an area, but surveying isn't new. The Romans used a groma to survey their buildings and plan out their roads.
	When the survey is complete the team measure out a trench and take off the turf with a mattock and spade. They carefully scrape down through the soil with a trowel. Loose soil is scraped up with a shovel and put into a bucket.
What will the archaeologists find?
Stephanie and her team have found tumbled-down walls and drains, as well as small finds such as pottery and jewellery.
	They also think they’ve found part of the fort ditches. Can you see where the soil changes colour?
Will Stephanie dig everything up?
Small finds, like the pottery and jewellery, will be dug up and taken away. The walls will be left where they are and reburied. It is important that they are recorded so that everyone knows what they looked like. All the loose soil is cleaned from the stones then they are photographed. Stephanie has to carefully draw all the remains. She puts this metre square grid over the trench and marks on the position of the finds.
	Another member of the team draws a wall. It had been overgrown with grass and the archaeologists have cleaned it off so that everyone can see the stonework.
Stephanie and her team take their finds back to the Museum so that they can be cleaned and studied. Some of the most interesting finds will be drawn and put on display in the Museum.
What happens next?
	Plans and 3D images of the site are created on a computer using the data from the survey and the excavations.
Stephanie is not the only archaeologist to have dug at Bremenium. In the 19th century the Duke of Northumberland, who owned the land, ordered an excavation of the fort.

This is a 19th century drawing of the south gate..	..and this is a photograph of the same gate today. What has changed? What is the same?

It’s not just archaeologists that are interested in Bremenium. Local people and tourists want to know more about it as well. One way of helping them is to put leaflets in Tourist Information Offices. The children at Byrness First School live near Bremenium. They went on a visit and produced their own guide to the fort for everyone to read.

Mr Jim Crow and Dr Richard Bayliss ran an excavation on the site of High Rochester. Some of the images on this page have been used with their kind permission.