Report: Lake District Archaeology Conference, 3rd November

The Lakeside Theatre in Keswick was pretty much sold out for the conference about this year's Lake District archaeology.

 The whole emphasis of the conference was community archaeology. With the formation of the Archaeology Network, the Lake District knows it has a wonderful volunteer resource for helping out with various projects within the National Park.  Added to that, there are several projects (for further information, see this newsletter) funded by the Heritage Lottery, as well as other other types of funding.  All would not take place if it were not for volunteers from the local community.

There are currently three Roman vici or settlement projects going on in the area!  There was Papcastle, Maryport and of course Ravenglass. So it was intreresting to hear about the various findings of these three sites, and someone commented that there would doubtless be a monograph on Roman Settlements in Cumbria appearing in the next few years.

The conference saw the first showing of Romans in Ravenglass - the film!  The version we saw was around five minutes long, and featured some now well known faces, including Holly, Kurt, Brian K, Leo, and Peter Frost-Pennington, as well as some of the diggers talking about their experiences. This version is due to be uploaded to the Lake District website shortly.  There is also a longer version of the film, which will hopefully be shown at the community presentation next year.

Ravenglass Director Kurt came over from York for the day to talk about the Dig.  Having only very recently got hold of the Geophys results, he was able to provide additional information with regards to the Roman roads, but said there is much more to come (this will be the subject of a future blog).

 It was also a chance to catch up with some of the Romans in Ravenglass volunteers!  It was great to meet up and exchange news.

Overall, it was an interesting and informative day, which gave a great insight to the work being done under the auspices of the Lake District National Park, as well as further Roman sites in the area.

Comment: Great British Rail Journeys ...

 

Series 3 of Great British Railway Journeys is currently being repeated on BBC 2 at around 3.30pm on Sunday afternoons.  Journey 18, Cockermouth to Eskdale was shown on 27th October.  As well as seeing part of the West Cumbrian Coast, Michael Portillo called in at Muncaster Castle and met Patrick Pennington who showed him Henry VI's cup called The Luck of Muncaster.  Portillo of course also took a trip on La'al Ratty, but did not visit the Roman Baths. The programme is available on BBC I-player until 3rd November - follow this link.

Next week, Portillo will be travelling from Kirby in Furness to Lancaster, and finds out the secrets behind Kirkby's famous blue slate.  Since we found some slate on our excavations, it will be worth seeing the programme!

 

Report: 26th-28th September 2013

The last few days on site were very busy, hence the lack of blogging :D  As well as hosting another day of School Visits, we also had the BBC visit us on Friday, along with the usual film crew also getting those last few shots for their film for the Lake District. 

BBC North West interviewed people on site, as well as taking film of the finds. Unfortunately, there isn't a link to the Look North programme on the BBC website, so those who actually saw it can count themselves as lucky!

The BBC cameraman went to great lengths to get a good shot of the Samian 'Venus' sherd, which is rather tiny, but she *did* appear on the tv!

Furious packing up of washed finds took place on the Saturday, and fortunately the weather stayed fine so there was plenty of room to sort them all out!  A big thank you to Janice who undertook this mammoth task!

Maggie kindly washed the door pivot stone which finally made its way to the Finds Hut.

And here it is, nice and clean.  It's possible to see the 'fault' line on the top right, which would have ruled it out of being a quernstone.

Then it was time for the final Finds Talk and the Final Site Tour of the season and there was a very good turnout out, including the Muncaster Estate owners Peter and Iona Frost Pennington:

Director Kurt's thoughts on the dig so far will be included in a future blog!

Report: 2nd-3rd September - setting up the compound

Apologies for the brief hiatus in blogs. Unfortunately trying to get onto the Web in the middle of a field in Cumbria is proving difficult at the best of times! Added to that, your blogger is also the Finds Officer and general compund dogsbody so it's been difficult to nip into the village and get onto the Pennington Hotel's super-stable wi-fi.  Finally, I'm here, and having done a few other urgent Web-based tasks have got to the blog.

2nd September was all to about getting the cabins and store, along with waiting for the van with all the digging equipment. The Welfare Unit, which is serving as an office, arrived at 10am, and not much later the Store and the portaloos.  This left only the Finds Cabin (which will also serve as a place to shelter from the rain) to be delivered.  Meanwhile, the Heras Panel sheeting was set around the cabins, so that they are secure whilst no-one's on site.

3rd September saw the delivery of the Finds Cabin (hurrah!) so the Finds Officer was able to check that all the equipment had actually turned up and set up ready for the next day.  Out on site, the trenches were being surveyed in, and the mechanical digger was able to start removing the topsoil.

4th September: We're digging!  As it's now getting on for 4pm and the site tour, I've got to run back to site to ensure there's someone actually looking after the compound.  Pictures to follow, hopefully tomorrow, but I have heard that there's some massive stones in one of the trenches, and can confirm we have actual Roman Finds! 

Romans in Ravenglass Introductory Day - 3rd August

An important date for your diary. There will be an Introductory Day for the project on 3rd August.  It is being held at the Pennington Hotel in Ravenglass, and begins at 10am.  This will be your chance to hear about the background to the project, as well as meeting key staff involved in the dig.  There will also be a site visit.  Further information can be downloaded here.