Conference: Lake District Annual Archaeology Conference (with Romans in Ravenglass)

Date: Sunday 11 October 2015
Location: The Theatre by the Lake, Keswick
Cost: £13.50 (with tea and coffee), £19.75 (with tea, coffee and lunch)

This year the conference will provide an opportunity to learn about recent projects carried out in partnership with local communities and volunteers both within and closely adjacent to the National Park. Many of these have been supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. Romans in Ravenglass Site Director Kurt will be speaking at 3.15pm.


For further details see: http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/learning/archaeologyhistory/archaeologyconference

For booking form see:  http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/613779/Conference-Flyer-2015.pdf

Amendment to the event: Romans in Ravenglass: end of season lecture, 18th July

Please note, there will now only be 1 end of season lecture. This will run in the morning between 10am and 12pm only.

Report: Fun in the sun!

Finally, we have found a local source of working WiFi. So this blog is brought to you courtesy of the Inn at Ravenglass.

As it was only the first week of digging, the main thing happening was opening up all three of the trenches again and carefully cleaning them up, so we could see where we left the contexts at the end of the dig in September 2013.

Trench 1, with trenches 2 & 3 in the distance

There is also a mysterious fourth trench ... This will be used for Outreach activities particularly on school visits, but also on our Open Days on Friday 12^th September, Saturday 13^th September and 27^th September, so that visitors can have a go at digging

Meanwhile, at the compound we were settling into a new routine of putting up two gazebos each morning, and then taking them down again at the end of the day.  One gazebo is the Lake District's, where the Outreach Team, led by Holly & Kim, are welcoming visitors, giving them more information about the site, as well as taking people on tours. Ably backing them up are Ravenglass regulars Brian & Leo. The other blue canopied gazebo, which will always be behind the the first, is for our finds washers. If you do a session there, expect to be part of the visitor experience too!

Lake District gazebo and finds washing gazebo

Although we have many diggers from the local community returning this year, there are plenty of new faces too. But everyone, on their first day, has to have an introductory talk, including background about the site, health and safety, housekeeping, and so on.

Director Kurt takes roll call

The weather is being very kind to us so far this year, so the Finds Hut team (Janice, Rosalie and Sandra) are starting to bag up properly dry finds and happily contemplating even marking some of the pottery – no marking happened at all last year. 

WiFi willing, there will be another site report on Wednesday, when we're back from our 'weekend.'

Comment: Spare days on the dig

If you've volunteered for the dig, but not received an email giving you further details regarding parking, timetable, etc., please drop Holly a line.

We also have the following volunteer spaces still available. These are on a first come first serve basis.

• Wednesday 3 September  - 5
• Thursday 4 September – 2
• Friday 5 September – 2
• Saturday 6 September – 6
• Sunday 7 September – 7
• Sunday 14 September -2
• Wednesday 17 September -2
• Friday 19  September -1
• Saturday 20 – 1
• Sunday 21 – 4 
• Thursday 25 September – 1
• Saturday 27 – 6
• Sunday 28 - 8

Contact Holly direct if you've already volunteered for this year, and want to do extra days. For further details, including instructions on how to apply if you haven't already signed up, go to the Lake District website. 

Press Release: Romans return to Ravenglass

Romans return to Ravenglass

This press release was published on: 20 Aug 2014

A major historic investigation into a nationally important coastal site is set to return next month. Roman stronghold Ravenglass, once a fort at the southern tip of Hadrian's Wall, will see the second season of a £125,000 community study into the key civilian settlement site.

The three-year Heritage Lottery Fund backed initiative was launched last year. Evidence of occupation was identified in three trenches, along with significant finds including a piece of Samian ceramic, possibly showing Venus.

Situated on the western fringe of the Lake District, Ravenglass boasts an ancient bathhouse, the region's tallest surviving Roman relic from an occupation spanning AD 120 through to the fourth century.

Lake District National Park's archaeology and heritage assistant, Holly Beavitt-Pike, said the important study focused on the significant civilian settlement.

She added: "This is a rare opportunity for people to get involved, not just in understanding their rich heritage, but to leave a lasting legacy.

"September sees us back again, continuing to explore the full extent of the civilian settlement and we are looking for volunteers to get involved.

"Alongside the investigation, we are also inviting members of the public to attend the open days on 12, 13 and 27 September .

"This will be a great opportunity for people to have a tour of the excavation sites, get their hands on some real Roman artefacts and even have a go at digging.

"The third event on Saturday, 27 September, marks the end of the season for the final dig. We'd love people to come along, see what we've found – and even meet a real Roman soldier!"

The open days run from 10.30am to 3pm.

Organised by the Lake District National Park, the project is also supported by Muncaster Parish Council, Muncaster Estate and the Copeland Community Fund.

Report: Project Results Evening, 3rd June

There was a great line up of talks about the results from 2013's Romans in Ravenglass digging season.  Also promised was a preview of plans for the  2014's excavations  ...

Finds Viewing
First up, as from 6.30pm, was the Finds Viewing. In fact, some people were so keen, that they arrived well before the advertised time, and the finds were still being unpacked!  Sandra and Kurt fielded lots of questions, and even got to view some pottery brought in by a local collector.






By 7pm, when the talks were about to begin, the Old Laundry at Muncaster Castle was pretty much packed!  There were new faces, as well veterans from 2013.

Introductions

When everyone was settled, an introduction was given by Peter Frost-Pennington of Muncaster Castle who is the managing director of the land the excavations are on. He was looking forward to hearing about the results and the forthcoming season.

Holly spoke briefly about the upcoming showing of Romans in Ravenglass film and thanked the community for their participation in the project so far.
 The various versions of the Romans in Ravenglass film can be found here.





The excavations
After this, Kurt spoke about the results of last year's dig, which included an overview of the trench results (see Trench 1, Trench 2 and Trench 3 reports), and also the extensive Geophyscial survey. For 2014 Kurt told us about new Trench 4 to be used for schools and open days, giving the opportunity for schools (when they visit with Lisa) and visitors (on the Open Days) to have a go at digging. In addition, there are plans to have volunteer placements on site and helping on finds. These are for people with some experience who will have the opportunity to go into either site or finds work more deeply and have more responsibility. They will have longer stretches of time doing site or finds work. Further details will appear here and on the Lake District website soon.

The site will be open from Wednesday to Sunday, a change from the previous year. Sunday will allow those who work elsewhere during the week to have a choice of days to come to site, as well as allowing more weekend visitors to look round the excavations.

Outreach
Lisa then told the audience about the Outreach programme, which allowed several local schools to have a fun time learning about the Romans and digging in the classroom as well as on site.  In 2014 there will be three more site Open Days on the 12th, 13th and 27th September, as well as more schools visiting, along with the local Young Archaeologists' Club and Lake District Young Rangers. 

Last year, day-to-day site tours were run by dig stalwarts Leo and Brian, who managed to cover most days throughout the four weeks, and along with others as visitor numbers went up later on in the season. Visitor Experience Guides are now needed this season to spread the word about the background to the project and show the public and passers by around the site, and those interested will need to attend a training session on  August 9th - see further details here. The Romans in Ravenglass project finds will also be on display at the Living History Festival 24th-25th August at Muncaster Castle, and volunteers are needed for this event.

Sign up
The signing up forms for the 2014 season can be found on the Lake District's Roman in Ravenglass webpage.

After a short session of questions, the evening ended with people enthused and ready for the next season of excavations in September!

Comment: Romans in Ravenglass video now live!

I’m pleased to say that the Romans in Ravenglass video is now available to view on the Lake District National Park website. Just click here to view.

The 5 minute version is a cut down version of the 13.40 minute one which is well worth watching. It gives a really good impression of the dig and what all your hard work achieved. If you are lucky you might even see yourself in the video!!

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.

Report: 21st September - Open Day!

Around 150 people came to see the dig and our findings.  As per last weekend, there was the Lake District tent with its finds from previous excavations, as well as some of the highlights of our new finds.  Also available was the sand pit, where children had fun seeing what they could excavate.  We had good weather - not sunny, but no rain!  Current forecasts suggest that the last digging week may not be dogged by further rain!  Which is good news, as we are looking forward to welcoming school parties on site on Tuesday and Thursday.

Report: 13th-14th September - Open Days

Today (16th Sept)  it's rainy, windy and just a bit chilly, but 13th & 14th September were site Open Days.  We were lucky, as both days had fine weather!  The Friday Open Day focussed on local societies, plus the Portable Antiquities Scheme Officer for Cumbria was available to identify finds from the area. He brought some finds from Ribchester Roman Fort with him, including glass beads, a silver ear-ring, coins and finger rings:

Also present were the Lake District Archaeologists, with Holly helping to meet and greet, as well as doing site tours:

Mervyn (background in hi-vis jacket) was the mainstay at the gate, along with Janice and other helpers potwashing and fielding initial questions:

A full range of other site activities were underway including digging in all three trenches, and working on environmental samples:

It was Supervisor Clark's last day on the Ravenglass samples, so time for one last photograph - his nifty wet weather headwear was much admired on previous rainy days:

Saturday was specifically a Family Fun Day, so a Outreach Officer Lisa brought along a sandpit available for kids to dig up their very own finds:

It was also busy at the Lake District tent, and Brian helped out, including doing site tours:

It was a much busier day than Friday, but it was still easy to pick out the diggers in their hi-vis jackets as they returned to their trenches after a well earned tea break:

The Finds Officer was pleased as she was able to let the finds trays out of the confines of the Finds Hut so they could get a bit of sun and (hopefully) get dried out enough to bag up:

 

Also enjoying the sun, were the diggers, especially when they got time to have a break from digging:

During the two Open Days, over 300 people came to visit the site to see what the commmunity had found in the three trenches at Ravenglass. We're recording where our visitors come from and its interesting to see that as well as local people, people are also coming from Lancashire, Yorkshire, Herefordshire, Scotland, Germany, and Australia!

Report: Introductory Day 3rd August

There was a great turnout, with over fifty people from the local community cramming into the room at the Pennington Arms Hotel in Ravenglass.

Holly Beavitt-Pike of the Lake District National Park gave the welcome address and then introduced Dr Alan Leslie of Northlight Heritage who spoke about Ravenglass Roman Fort in the wider Roman context.

He asked when our preconceptions of Rome were formed and showed images from tv series, and films going back to the 1920s. He then went on to consider the evidence for Roman Ravenglass, and how it is viewed. He challenged us to think about the context of the fort and how it is interpreted. He pointed out the book Motel of the Mysteries by David Macauley which humorously explored the idea of future archaeologists digging up a motel and not fully understanding what they have found. [Kurt has a much thumbed copy of this, which he will bring to the excavations in September],  Dr Leslie gave a thought-provoking and amusing lecture which set the scene for the next speaker.

Kurt Hunter-Mann of York Archaeological Trust, who is directing the excavations, spoke about the archaeology of Ravenglass so far and what will be happening on site during the forthcoming excavations. In the first year, there will be three long trenches, so there's plenty of digging to do. In addition, there will there will be opportunities to take part in geophysical surveying, environmental analysis and field walking (which will include the shoreline).  He omitted to say there will also be the chance for undertaking finds work!  So there's something for everyone to get involved in.  In particular, he said that local input is crucial, with the community having insights into their archaeology and area which would be very valuable to the project.

Next to speak was Lisa Keys of Minerva Heritage who will be delivering the Romans in Ravenglass Outreach programme.

 
This will involve local schools visiting the site, as well as the Young Archaeologists' Club coming to see the dig at some point.  There will be several open days over the four weeks (for the dates see here), which will include displays, craft activities, finds displays from previous excavations and site tours. At the end of the project there will be an interpretive leaflet and panel, as well as a permanent display at nearby Muncaster Castle.

That was the end of the lecture programme  for the day and it was time for lunch. It was a fine day, so people were able to sit out in the courtyard to eat their sandwiches, and chat about the project. The audience was split into two groups. One section was to follow Holly, and the other Kurt, in a tour of the fields that were to be the object of the project.  This was a chance for the community to contribute further information, as well as ask further questions of the tour leaders.

The tours lasted for a couple of hours as the groups were led over the two fields and around to the Bath house.

Overall it was a great day with much enthusiasm for the project shown by both the speakers and the local community. We're all now looking forward to September and the main events of the Romans in Ravenglass project!

Staff Introduction: Holly Beavitt-Pike

Holly is the Lake District National Park's Project Manager for Romans in Ravenglass.  Here's a little about her from the Lake District National Park's website:

http://www.lakedistrict.gov.uk/aboutus/jobs/whatdowedoexactly/archaeology-and-heritage-assistant