Roman secrets unearthed (From South Wales Argus)

Roman secrets unearthed

8:09am Saturday 14th June 2008

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SECRETS of a Roman world unseen for more than 2,000 years are set to be revealed by a team of archaeologists digging in Gwent.

Excavation of parts of Caerleon's Roman Fortress, starting next week, could reveal a wealth of previously unknown important information about Roman Britain.

A team of 50 archaeologists will dig for the remains of a monumental courtyard building in the south-western corner of the fortress.

It is hoped it will reveal information about the storage facilities, provisioning, and supply of a Legion in Britain.

Dr Peter Guest, of Cardiff's School of History and Archaeology, is leading the dig.

He said store-buildings are a largely unknown feature of legionary fortresses, and the dig is the first research excavation conducted on a military store in Britain.

He hopes their findings will improve knowledge of the fortress and its inhabitants and tell them more about the history of the fortress and Roman Britain.

"This is real archaeology in action and we are looking forward to an exciting summer in Caerleon," he said.

The existence of the store was discovered during geophysical surveys undertaken by staff and students from Cardiff University and was investigated during trial excavations in 2007.

This year's excavation will open a large trench over the building, which is believed to be a store-building or warehouse.

Archaeologists from the University College London will also join the dig.

Throughout the project Dr Guest and the team will be keeping a dig-blog detailing their progress, see below for link.

Members of the public can join free twice-daily tours of the excavation site, where they can see some of the latest archaeological finds uncovered by the team.

The project is supported by Cadw and the National Roman Legion Museum.

Tours of the site are available at 11am and 2.30pm daily (except Saturday) and the team will also be involved in events for Caerleon's Roman Spectacular Military Weekend on June 28 and 29 and National Archaeology Week from July 12 to 20.

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