The Roman Fort That Wasn't There | FULL EPISODE | Time Team

in 43 ad the Romans invaded Britain along with 40,000 men and a load of elephants all packed into a thousand ships they landed down the road at rich Peru here in Kent but immediately after that no one's really sure what happened mainly because no Roman forts have ever been found here in southeast England that is maybe until now because archaeologist Paul Wilkinson has got a theory that this hilltop at Sindel may be the site of the first Roman fort ever built in Britain he's invited Time Team to use their expertise and experience to test his theory and we're going to need every minute of our three days to do it [Music] to me this looks like the perfect place to build a fort you've got a great vantage point all the way around Kent perfect place for your centuries to be but what do I know the person that we really need to talk to is Paul Paul why do you think there is a fort here well because I've dug a trench through here and underneath the turf we've got a very very nice Roman ditch my turn the bottom of that ditch was in fact Claudian pottery this is the exactly where you're standing now the graphics have done me the kind of magnets I'd understand here yes we're just there we just stood on this trench here and behind us is the other trench were dug and by joining up the profiles of those we could actually see exactly where the Roman ditch ran and we did exactly the same thing on the east side yeah what two ditches doesn't make a fort doesn't why are you so convinced that there might have been a fall here location you know 43:18 the Roman army landed at Richboro marched along the North Kent coast and it's exactly a day's march to Sindel where we're standing now and the Roman fleet would have used the best anchorage along the coast which in fact is just downhill from here so this could be the place that they very first camped after they arrived in Britain this is the first overnight stop of that Roman invasion it would be fantastic if we found it wouldn't over be a real big story for British art every one foot over recent years Paul's been excavating a 3rd to 4th century Roman town nearby but he's never had the resources to properly test his ideas about this hill so understandably this is the start of a big three days for him the prospect of finding evidence connected with one of the biggest events in British history has got Victor fired up - and possibly even carried away but it's this huddle of Time Team archaeologists who are here to test Porsche there's anyone that's got actually Claudian pottery from is anticipation well that's the case for a roman fort is very much still to be proved and knowing this lot they'll take some convincing the key thing is how long it took them here for how much trouble they had because diode does tell us there's a lot of guerrilla warfare going on here the Britons retreating into what he calls swamps and forests now does he mean round here doesn't mean further west so we don't know whether they got here in a couple of days and whether it took a couple of weeks so what do they think about chances of finding the first Roman fort built in Britain no it's a really exciting idea I love the idea of finding an early Roman fort perhaps the first one in that whole Roman conquest but it's going to be incredibly difficult to pick out so 360 year period of history and we're talking about a place that might have been occupied for just a few weeks one year maybe a couple of years at the outside really tough so already he's starting to rubbish the idea of the first Roman fort what about a Roman fort no can we find that oh definitely because that there's some key forensic tests we can apply to the archaeology if you like to show whether it's a fort or whether it isn't yeah I mean what are the diagnostic traits first of all a fort has defenses so it's gonna have a rampart around all four sides of Earth announced like that double ditch is one ditch no ditching outside that in each side there'll be a gateway timber gateway built with big of massive timber posts in each corner that'd be a tower rising out of the rampart to give used to the outside and finally dating is very crucial selective pinning down the date of this thing because we're looking at ten years in time so we want pottery we want the same young pottery that because this is very very easily dateable it isn't helped pin it down even better some bits of Roman armor bits of military equipment we get that democractic well they don't want much do they my surprise there monster plan at the moment is to do nothing that is until geophys have surveyed the area where about the clearest evidence for a Roman military ditch the hope is that geophys will not only detect any other Roman ditches but shows if the tube it's all found join up this would in fact reveal the shape of the fort Phil explains to the diggers that there's going to be a bit of a wait but maybe not because Stuart has a plan of his own this one which is asked graphics to fit to the scale of the modern map of the site let's do Stuart's interested in this big earthwork Bank that's always been thought to be part of some fancy gardens that went with a grand house that was here in the 18th century who actually got a plan here of the 18th century gardens this is dated 1760 and we put it to the same scale and if I overlay it can you see that's it that's the road at the top that's where the notes is there can you see the symmetry of the gardens that go with the house yeah it's no way near its little work here and it's six of a total different alignment as well so even though they were right in saying that this was an old garden they may have used something that was here before and stock that on top that's what I wanted I think there's such an obvious earth worker than the shape or form but we've got to have a look check even if it is a later feature what's it hiding is adding any aspect of an earlier landscape Phil come over here mate so a change of plan we're going to get Frenchie oh wow Stuart's given us a target to dig that's not dependent on geophys valuation French down the Scot out here 20 metres long it's going to be our first test of the site to cut through the bank to see if there's anything underneath it's that first hole and it and it's gonna be a long trench to see if we can find a continuation of the Roman ditch all discovered so the process of testing the theory that there is a Roman fort here as well and truly begun maybe take a shave more off but we're getting close on behind now then now then that's a bit more like it and it that looks to me that's Roman isn't it yeah in the incident room the evidence Paul found is under close scrutiny a Roman fort expert will not you've got a nice crisp v-shaped profile you've just got the beginnings of the little square cut ankle breaker at the bottom but the eye is really drawn by the fact that somebody's been keen and scored these lines into the section or score the interpretation into the section that said dicker not a Roman of course it does slightly draw your eye and another photograph which goes a bit deeper you can see that there's a little bit of a ditch which hasn't been scored below it there's a straight line the experts opinion is that Paul's Roman ditch is even more convincing than the way it was originally interpreted the only Roman military ditch I'm aware is this one as depicted on my idiots guide with a steep side where the attacker pulls in at a shallower side the only way out into the line of fire but there are three different types and it's the middle one here have fits best with what Paul's phone so you reckon we've definitely got a military ditch on the west coast very very very good company very good is it one of the double ditches belonging to a roman fort like this what we need is a geophys plan of the ditches and it looks like we won't have to wait too long now hey Roman all right now question is dating this looks like belt it grog tampered where it could be anytime between the late Iron Age and about 200 plus AD just her slow down it belgique grog yes so what does that leave it means the pottery it's like this both handmade and wheel turned it's fired black it contains the grog in this context is not rub its foot prefix I ground up clay a mix of a filler with the cry of the pot itself you want to expert this is the expert X filter sort of rim ah time right now look that looks like more diagnostic now I'd like to get this cleaned up this looks awfully like it's from a bi conical beaker in Upchurch where which should date from about the year the conquest through to a hundred to a hundred and thirty ad quite a nice guys Gnostic piece so we make me what you've got is a bit of mixed up earlier pottery we have some later pottery what you expect this is the first layer we've got this so we keep going feel-good stuff and now at last we're going to get to see the much-awaited GF is results and their first survey contains good bad and very bad news the good news is that they've detected these clear features the bad news the month this one being a recent field belt we know this because it's in the wrong position to be the ditch pool found that's here the very bad news is that geophys can't see Paul's ditch or any other Roman ditches that might be here we need to do a lot more work but I suspect you're not going to want to wait for us hey Neil I've heard of anticlimax ISM but we've been waiting for two-thirds of a day to get information which would allow us to find out whether this was the first roman fort in Britain and we've got one black blob that he's not all that keen that we should put a trench in anyway I think it's time for Plan B don't you which might be well we said there was a checklist didn't we the thinking would define so why don't we try and attack that and it seems to me maybe the best place to go is round to the front of the fort nearest to where Watling Street is the m1 of Roman roads Watling Street actually cuts across the edge of our sight it looks as if what history actually goes over this earth work as a physical relationship suggesting that the bottom Street is later than this earth week what what date is Lee what Instagram we've got pottery from the lowest levels of AD 50 ish so that what's if that's the correct that would suggest that this earth work is earlier than lady 50-ish so it's either very early Roman or it's pre-roman and if we can nail that down that's a start isn't it so test number two we're opening up our second trench here where the big earthwork bank turns we want to know if this could be the corner of a fort and how the earth work itself relates to what link straighten deeply buried archaeology difficult geology whatever the reasons for GF is not working the fact is that without a plan showing where the ditches are our task has become that much harder but not impossible because we have Stuart's expertise to fall back on his suggestion to position trench one here has revealed a completely new ditch that was hidden by the earthwork bank where is it well it's it I'm standing on it you can see the other natural there and yellow natural behind us all right you need an expert eye to see it at the moment but this ditch is about 15 meters away from the one Paul discovered that should show up somewhere about here in trench one digging was very much part of daily life for a Roman soldier I can forgive you have the round with the digging the Roman soldiers had to dig defensive ditches in pretty much full armor in hostile territory that could come off as well Phil's enlisting in the urban street guard for the day to find out what it was like this is a funny old tool and it is this as near as you can get to a Roman Spade it's the nearest we found as far as I'm aware it's definitely a digging tool I mean you see it dig with it and then this nose Bricker if this is a good tool to use but we're in problem is if you can try shovel with it like that and that's where I was missin a decent sugar level get down there and issues it's a poor design I just said it's a poor design yeah well I'm not sure Phil would approve but over entrenched - we've got what we think is our first coin resting on a shovel ready for guy to see look guys I think it got a little coin he's come out this ball heap and bottom metal detectorists right the key thing is the size that takes us into it look it's you can see it's quite clear isn't it the legend quite clear and they just you're right it's definitely fourth century now because I can see that little victory on the back and the mint mark around the edge it's in the middle to third quarter of the fourth century so it is interesting because we're looking for is signs of first century occupation ideally military finds although not the bids dropped by fill so is that a military equipment gets lost there's just one round on the on the pin and then and flipped off it's really just about where the winds blowing the other thing that I've been aware of since I've been digging here and something you just never say on a site nowadays there's all the hobnailed marks and I mean that it must have been summit which was always there on a Roman so if you hadn't Roman military building I think you have opted out I thought it would be a bit more I don't know uncomfortable to work with all this armor on I mean it is a bit like trying to shovel digging it in a straightjacket but actually it was actually not too bad at all yeah if there is a bit of sort of chafe in there yeah and I'll tell you what we have warmed up protected [Laughter] just a few hours ago Neil said to me don't worry about this trench you won't take up much time or labor we'll just use the JCB whip up the topsoil and almost immediately will come down on fines now look at the depth and the length of this thing Neil you've gone stir crazy it hasn't quite gone according to plan Tony we fought we go through this topsoil and that this was the natural subsoil but Kerry's been digging into it I mean it feels like natural it looks like natural we've got Roman pottery in it which means this is Roman infill down at this depth and Malcolm what you think of the pottery well let's have a look now you've got yes you've got this is Simon this is very eroded same in it's lost its surface it's from a dragon door thirty-six dish post 70 AD host 78 see this piece this is the 30 an inverted rim cooking pot very wet heavily averted probably third century third third station robbery third century this is from the perinatal girth of a bi conical not the care amazing gothic very good this is probably the first time that our viewers will ever sing here interrogating curtain of iconic oh yes so what you're saying for the year is that between 43 and 130 so what you're saying is that this deposit down here 150 years later but our putative Roman fall could be so we've got to get down another 150 years of topsoil we get on the what we're looking for I think so I think what's happened Tony is that all this brown stuff which has got Roman pottery in it I think this is actually do that the 18th century Park what they think that you move large amounts of earth about to make a flat part land landscape we're making it all the Lord's a real for us but at least now we know the Roman archaeology is buried the different owners are close this side [Music] which is why we're wasting no time opening trench three because as well as locating Paul's Roman ditch in trench one we want to see if it also continues in this direction it's been a long cold frustrating day we've shifted an awful lot of dirt and I think we started to think we were never going to find anything decent but now things are looking out now we haven't quite turned the corner yet but this is a brilliant fine because it's one of the key things that we need to pin it down to the invasion coin of Claudius claw is that the fourth emperor of Rome the doddering half-wit put in place by the soldiers on his invasion to Britain to prove his hold position to show these great emperor here we see the name really clearly there Claudius great thing is the coins not very worn despite the corrosion that means it's been lost fairly early in its life damn where did the coin come from that coin came from about three inches below this marker that we've put in here right on the top of the last piece of material in the ditch so we've still got a fair way to go to get right to the bottom but it's looking good so maybe that lower is actually gonna have accordion pottery they go with that coin what we're looking for all day so you think we could find this fun this is a great start it really is earlier today the graphics people gave me this idiots guide to what you need to find a fourth Samian pottery corner towers military finds a gateway double dishes join us after the break when I'm betting that we'll get decent archaeological evidence that right here we've got a Roman fort just like that beginning of day two in our search for the first Roman fort ever found in Britain I got really excited yesterday because down here we found a ditch and in it there was a very early Roman coin of the Emperor Claudius hopefully we'll get lots more goodies in there later on but puzzlingly we didn't find a ditch here which would line up with the ditch that archaeologist paul wilkinson found over there last year which got him thinking there was a fort here in the first place so where is that ditch we think maybe we're not down deep enough yet and the big quest today is to get on down which is gonna be easier said than done it's difficulty enough to see each other let alone the archaeology Roy so we gonna find a roman for in here today [Music] we're testing a theory that there was once a Roman fort here but struggling without any guidance from geophys whose results so far have been foggy - at the moment they can't explain why they're not able to detect the Roman ditches that we know exist on this site so we're looking for any other clues that might help us the idea that there was a fort here isn't a new one back in the 1800s various antiquarians thought the Roman army had been here this is in 1874 and it says although the Roman camps no more by tradition than by remains actually existing today it's still traceable round the garden the stable-yard to 4th century Roman settlement running alongside Watling Street and he believes it to be the Roman town of juror 11 we knew already that those Roman cemeteries to the north there and so you know we're looking at already a shape of a Roman football now hilltop here although the standard playing card shape is fairly dominant there are a number of examples here where they're completely different we got a trapezoid shape there one almost looks like a cricket bat and the Roman engineers were very practical people if there is a fort here they may have tailored it to suit the shape of the ridge which points in that direction so we match have something which is that kind of trapezoidal shape so Stuart reckons that if there is a fort here it could be this shape but so far all our efforts have been focused on the western side and now the feeling is that it's time to change our strategy Stuart you're looking Restless I'm just still a bit concerned at the moment because we've got concentration on ditches on the waste side yeah I mean whatever we found we're still then they got ditches layer I think we need to broaden our horizons and demonstrate that we've got another yeah yeah it's possible well I think we've got to sort of move over to the east we see what's happening over there all the thing is to demonstrate we have actually got an enclosure that's right yeah I was hoping that geophys might have better luck detecting the other Roman ditch Paul excavated on the eastern side of the site but once again their equipment just isn't seeing it what we need to know is if it carries on down there to form a your second site to this enclosure I think you should just put a trench in on the basis of your alignment I'll just continue something I think it's what we're gonna have to do I mean we did it over there and we've got some results if we do the same tactic here put a long trench in to cover where that ditch might go and then it it'll allow your picture to to build up as well and see if it fits in between the trenches want a picture of nothing I thought I'd say that before you did to add to our problems had a team leader neil has to leave us to attend an important meeting oh we haven't got my entry checklist should I be getting some pottery I've got not one tick in any of these boxes no but we've got two coins which are always like half a cake if you like but why why are these coins so significant why do they say military they're just coin well they're coins that came over with the Roman army and he searched dates for about 20 years after the Roman invasion where you find them they are almost exclusively associated with the Roman army so they're very strong evidence that there was something happening here at the right time I think the question is have that we defend the trenches does that relate to what those coins originally came from yeah so we've got to keep going I mean is note written something like time to panic he's right because the ditch we've discovered could be possible big enough and in a good position on the grounds I hear beautiful edge there we're gonna get another a similar beautiful edge there this thing's gonna go right down great big v-shaped thing are you convinced that it's Roman and does it look like I mean we've got the Claudine coin out there yes in amongst masses of Roman material so yep no doubts it's Roman well I think both Dan and I are hoping that the Roman ditch we've discovered here could be one of the two defensive ditches that you normally get around a Roman fort the ditch Paul found would be the outer of the two but the mystery at the moment is that we can't find any continuation of Paul's ditch either in trench one or over here in trench three because of this we're now reopening one of Paul's trenches to check the alignment so why do you need Henin well that's what I want the little fella for I mean look you see that pile of dirt right there once Henry to work out how much deeper we have to dig to get down to the same Roman level the whole fact given the dumping of soil that's gone on in this area yeah did he call you the little fella shall we decades superannuated old hippie yeah I think everyone's agreed that this is a big of a sign to get to grips with not just the landscaping but also the change in geology makes it difficult to read we have to remember it is worth the trouble finding evidence of a Claudian Fortier would be major news because so little is known about the Roman invasion of 43 ad historians of the Roman period actually tell us about the invasion well our main source is dire Casius a Greek who wrote about 160 years after the event that's pretty well we've got this very interesting question because really there's only a couple of pages and it doesn't tell us any of the information you or I or any other archaeologists or historian would be desperate to have which is like exact geographical information for where they landed all he tells us for example is that they came in in three waves and he doesn't even tell us the number of troops you'd often read in history books that it was forty or fifty thousand men well that's based purely on working back from legions and soldiers that we knew were around here probably the best part of a generation later and a side reference that suggests there were roughly the same number of legionaries and auxiliaries involved in the conquest so that's where the figure of forty thousand has come from not from a Roman historian where does that leave Sindel well you know it's a key route across North Kent I mean they're gonna have to end up controlling it and remember that the cosines very different at that well leek coastline would have been closer then we also see level yeah very important for the Roman supply bases to be up close to the coast because they would move most of their bulk materials by sea so this is a key road route and the keys see rude so Simbel must have played or any fort along here whether there's a fort here whether there's a fort somewhere else controlling this route would have been vital to the progress of the invasion as the men and materiel start to be moved in again just like the d-day landings in 1944 you've got to get all that stuff in and control it we've just about re excavated Paul's old trench we can actually see the bit of ditch he originally discovered and now we've done this of course Phil announces he thinks he's finally found the continuation of it over here in trench one [Music] but at least we can now check its alignment so with Phil's trench in the distance and Paul's old trench in the middle we can see why we haven't found it in trench three so if the line that to up the ditch should come through him there which explains why we didn't find it absolutely in that trench we stopped mate and a half day short a long last had diggers have got smiles on their faces is it just because the sun's come out or have we actually got more evidence for air Forge I think we're starting to starting to get some more evidence now this the ditch up here in trench one is resolving itself it's a ditch it's carrying on on down where Phil is down there we've got a ditch which is slightly curving in it's quite it was confusing because it's right right on the edge of an existing landscape feature so you've already got a drop and they're they're cutting the ditch into the edge of the drop to sort of accentuates it if you came to this cold yeah and just saw the evidence that we've got in the ground now would you think who looks to me like we've got a Roman fort I need more of a afraid even more of more of a circuit we really need to get the profile of this a Phil's ditch to see if it's the same as the profile of Paul's dish [Music] but at last we do seem to be getting somewhere for the first time I'm beginning to believe that there might be a Roman fort here a lot the votes come right up to here even now that's right to me and this is only what about a mile away yeah our sights - y'all can't see this weekend it's like your cloud just hanging over the edge of the water there our little site is just just a little black blob just their piace ad in the the run coastline there's no doubt that the site occupied a prime position and it's best appreciated on our 3d modeling general wetness that's amazing isn't it because you can see how visible it would have been approaching from the coast it's a completely different perspective isn't it there's a row a stream coming down this family and there still is a stream flowing through favish room there's a creek in there and that vessels were able to get much much closer to our site that they can and present so you'd have had an army marching through the countryside and then along the coast you'd have had support coming from the Roman boats [Music] finding a gateway into the forties high on my checklist and the fact that the ditch Phil's discovered appears to be turning suggest we could have found it entrances to forts varied quite a bit some had curving ditches others didn't but most had an outer bank preventing attackers charging the gate the truth is about how we sort out we've got I think we do need to extend the trench posit at least five meters and possibly even further to try and get that out of and all that level all that stuff down there has been so hastily landscaped that any any banks we're not sure we're not gonna find out but now you've been ignoring the geophysics up until now I mean if we look at what's in the trench and what we've got in our results now is that not what you're talking about and that looks absolutely perfectly this is the sort of shape of the adequate you have it comes along like that then curves out an s about s shape then starts up again after gap and that's exactly what you've got that a long curving earth near shape gap and starting up again this is fantastic [Music] nevertheless were extending trench one to find more of Philly's curving ditch thankfully over in the eastern field that progress is much easier to understand well we haven't found any Roman ditches in this stretch and we haven't found very much in the way of row and finds by our foes well yeah there's nothing really that's definitely first century but the thing I thought you might want to see fearless is these I won't want you to ask me to bring these over yeah I see it's a high maintenance world you see these are always falling like that those little those little rounded heads like that and and then just where they've been bent over but they don't have to be military no you're right they don't have to be military the other thing is when we've got to be careful about this we know that loads of roman graves have been found in the area putting a pair of shoes for the journey to the underworld in a grave is a commonplace thing for Romans to do and what you get of the iron hobnails left behind tell me about this it's been a nightmare for GFE but they've not given up yet go ahead last a glimmer of hope for GF is it seems their latest results may have detected a huge ditch on this side of the site one of our frustrations has been that we've only got little bits of a ditch around here and that means that we've no idea what the size of the thing is or what shape it's in but if we've got a piece around here then that really is an important piece of the jigsaw defining the area we could know whether there's a really good chance of there being a fort here or not just from that couldn't we we need to see it on the ground we need to see it on the ground this has got to be a first John nervously rushing in to see his own results I know this is worth it well anything's worth it isn't it look what we've got here we surveyed this huge area and we found this high resistance anomaly if it's running along here you see in the pot and it's right I mean what is it it's got a big got a big show me where it isn't walk around well all right okay on the ground well wait wait it's a proxy we going around about here Tony now it me it's about that it's about that orientation so in fact it should be just about clicking the edge of the the trench if it goes through the trench I don't know because we've not surveyed right up to the edge of the trench and it's all becoming too much for us is there anything we need I know any means although I think they'll have to wait until tomorrow to find out if they really have found evidence of the fort but it's all part of the positive trend we've had going this afternoon the feeling that we're starting to sort out the archaeology on this hill in fact I optimistically asked graphics to start working on a 3d model of the kind of fort Gateway we might expect and I reckon this has put the kibosh on it because now I'm told the Gateway has disappeared the devastating news is we couldn't find any more of Phil's curving ditch because it's been quarried away and even after massively extending trench one there was no trace of the other side of an entrance as if this isn't bad enough after extending trench three we still couldn't find any continuation of Paul's Roman military ditch in this direction following the light lines of inquiry even if you're not getting the answer I knew is Tony who stood in your ATM one thing's for sure we're gonna need our team leader back to try and sort it all out tomorrow in our ditch sure it goes halfway around that turn and then it just stops find us the Mosin exit maybe we can still solve the other continuous and well discontinuities aren't aren't gate like they just stole I mean okay we came here looking for a fort and I mean it's looking as though it's slipping away that doesn't mean to say we got to give up I don't know but but equally if we haven't got a thought what the hell have we got I know it's just as interesting to find out well yeah how we have gone join us after the break because I promise you that tomorrow we'll sort all this evidence out and find out one way or another exactly what's here day three and our last chance to try and get to grips with the archeology on this bridge of higher ground one of the most challenging sites I think we've ever tackled we're testing the theory that there was once a Roman fort here because my blank checklist shows the evidence is proving hard to find yesterday I thought we'd established that we had a Roman military ditch stretching between these two trenches you plant them we've got a ditch come into here and then where the hell does it go I still think I'm not convinced that addiction trench one is pools boots just because it's cutting material that potentially is yielding later pottery therefore that ditch could be third century in that trench yeah definitely not the start of the day we were hoping for meanwhile I'm driving across to the other side of the site but we're looking for another of Paul's ditches but in theory joined up to encircle the hill like this carrenza I don't see you actually leaping up and down with enthusiasm so presumably you still haven't found the ditch no this peg is on the point of which it should come through given that those ranging poles are on the line of the ditch and as you can see looking the trench there's nothing in there at all the truth is that the whole site is a big puzzle without geophys being able to detect the ditches but our strategy of digging long exploratory trenches to locate the archaeology seems to be paying off because we've unearthed something in this end of the trench we're widening to get a better look debating the site and the timing got left yesterday third century layers and Carlos century military dudes we're looking for so really all we've got going back a step now is we're back to where Paul had it last year in his strange I know it all sounds a bit like just chasing ditches but I am too late let's go back between the two trenches again now let's see if we can find out where that ditch really goes work from the known into the unknown I mean maybe for surely to goodness you know we we need to leave out the odds over star after two days it don't look like we have got one are we going to spend the rest of the three days arguing about whether or not it is or actually trying to come up with something constructive and say well it's not a four but well this is what we think it could well be other words of the archaeology of the site and maybe destroy yeah as we witnessed the other day with this plucky Legionnaire Roman soldiers did occasionally lose bits of kit but we've seen nothing in the way of military finds and the feeling now is that your ditches could belong to a Roman farm rather than your fort even the big impressive ditch we found under the earthwork Bank could just be a property boundary although Dan who excavated it needs convincing well it's still a big ditch and it's still a deep ditch and if it's linked with farming and landscape and field systems for instance it I think it's just too big and it's too clean it still looks a bit like a military ditch I'll I'll grant you but it it hasn't got the context and you say everything else is is is going now and even the pottery from it had had a wide date range didn't it it could be Claudia but the range means that it could be hadrianic again although Dan's big ditch might continue under the earthwork Bank it's not possible for us to get at it here in trench 2 because we've discovered would you believe the remains of a 4th century Roman and any earlier evidence would be deep beneath it we've got metal surface was really nice we've got a camber it's coming much lower down here it's rising up we don't have many cobbles here and maybe rut marks from transportation Road and it's aligning in this direction unearthing a Roman Road coming off Watling Street may not be what I was hoping for but it is in itself a significant discovery another bit for Paul to add to his growing picture of juror 11 the third and fourth century town he's been excavating here at sindel but the whole team announced that there wasn't a Rome I don't believe it could break the eagle to pitch so I've got to say I think we've given you a good go pool but I just don't think we've got the evidence that that forms a continuous line to make a site of a fool it's a v-shaped dish but it doesn't have it doesn't have the other feature it's not continuous with you know gates in the break a military ditch tony has to go round something the theories that have been coming out and the kind of analysis of the archaeology that we've got so far really seems to me to rip to shreds your whole reason for getting us here in the first place which was to establish whether there's a fort here how you feeling about that we can't keep going for detail of actually trying to find out which deep ditch is which ditch and how they all tie up we've got a look at the wider picture the best use of our time now is the elders will touch down a hill general picture of the show excuse me being a bit skeptical but that sounds to me like a very clever argument for saying in desperation we'll just sling in some random trenches for the next day's must have surrounded something and we've got to find out what they're surrounded now we've confident is not a thought the only way to finance look somewhere in the middle so we're going to excavate in the middle of the site to see if we can get any clue to what was going on here any information and the most promising news of the day has come from where we've been widening the trench on the far side of the site but we have really started hit some major roman levels here that's a bit of a big hole you got one I'm afraid so yes we were hoping this morning was going to be part of this this great big ditch going across the site but it's actually turning into C there a well or it's a pit or it's some kind of some other ditch that isn't a ditch another one yes exactly it's going straight down and we haven't hit the bottom yet anything in it that's about the best piece of pottery I've seen off this science look at the decoration it's really delicate all those Scrolls here you see the little pair of birds on either side you see the bird turning back there another one over on this side now on these are all off the same pole that goes on there there's a bit missing on there and I'll bet you that's the one it must have been about no people look the most interesting thing about the whole thing is the way it's been riveted together do you see the lead rivets the mean put through on the top bit here there's a hole for a little bit that's been missing and what I thought what is it credible you could take such a flashy piece of decorated bottom for the sake great rivets through making it really ugly yeah but actually all with honour I think right up till the 20th century you would still rivet vessels and you can make them watertight so a valued vessel you'd look after like that even though it looks incredibly ugly to us what are the dates this late first century somewhere Flavian periods that's actually very good for us it's still not back to invasion well that is by far the best find that we've had on this dig yeah wait bone pin there oh yes sometimes you tell me something is a bone pin and it just looks like a bit of old Manx to me but that's beautiful you mentioned trying to make that without breaking it she did it and then we've got to a ring there as well don't we think of that guy hexagonal all right that's octagonal isn't it yeah it's either silver or it's silver bronze to look like silver the other thing that's really interesting we haven't had before so far guys that's fantastic because all we've had across here are bits of what we think that we feel those gullies and ditches that sort of thing building this is part of a a curved roof tile called an M Breck's laid out on a row like that with the flat roof cortically on either side absolutely Roman Forum I've got roof tiles we've got a roof we've got a building what do you think we've got guys this looking like a quite wealthy farmhouse at the end of the second century I think that's a real possibility but that kind of thing that's that's a curved roof time you'd have a whole row of those up the middle of the roof and the flat tiles underneath on either side absolutely a Roman type I think you've got another piece there with a fingerprint we've got lots of it yeah right then that tells me that there's probably a structure in the vicinity a Roman building that's the first evidence we've had for that what's so reassuring to me is that we've had these little scatters of Roman evidence yes or no yeah but we've never really had a focus anywhere where actually real tangible things might have been going on right with so whatever this is the new challenge is to try and make sense of it in the time we've got left but it seems we're talking Roman the farm or port and that apparently is why the geophysics doesn't work okay let me try and explain we look at the magnetics if you've got a ditch and that's part of a fort inside the fort you'll have lots of activity burning rubbish pits and so on when the fork goes out of use the material the burnt material goes into the ditch fill when we walk over with magnetics we get a strong signal if that ditch is actually just a field boundary there's no fault then you don't have the burning you don't have the rubbish so the fill that goes into the ditch it's sterile when we walk over no signal that's the magnetics the resistance they look at the same ditch normally the fields waterlogged so when we go over the currents pass through easily we get a low signal if that ditch is on a slope then the water drains away down the slope so when we walk over no signal so that's two reasons anymore how long you got geophys can take some consolation from the fact that our evaluation trenches have now established that there wasn't any Roman archaeology to be detected on top of the hill but there is one last chance for geophys given that we're now finding evidence of Roman settlement in this field they've nervously suggested that we check out the one large anomaly they detected closeby georgous trench in aid of their job that's what Chris got yesterday is huge anomaly running through their high resistance - where's our trench trenches going right across their time this mystery doesn't take long to resolve so a Roman villa right well where did that come from well I thought that this somebody suggested that maybe this was going to be the wing of a Roman villa who you've answered the question it's gravel yeah it's where we said it was going to be fill so that that's all that matters would you believe it it's that park land landscape again this is probably the worst geophysical site we've been on and we want to go we could sell the aggregate rights if only back in the 18th century they'd known that creating a park here would cause so many problems but later landscaping isn't the reason we've had to dig deep be here this we've now established is a Roman weld stuffed with clues about daily life here in the 1st to 4th century well this is my favorite bit of the site you've got more finds yes it's a third century pointy little radiate clown on the head yeah third century anything else yeah these are just coming up in and around the area of the shaft what the metal were was very heavy isn't it oh is that what I think it might be a weight off a steel yard you know there's old day balancers where you'd have a shaft with weights hanging off it on a hook oh yeah it's so heavy that that must be its function it's certainly got a suspension hole listen right red where you see the finger marked there for the decoration around the frill is a pleasure in half that recalled much Adam which produced quite a distinctive sort of red pottery summer which had faces on the front dating to the fourth century summer little bit earlier but again you know you've got a complete mishmash have a half dates all the way through the area MIT it's mostly third and fourth century but there's little bits of first have you got different levels in it or is it just all mixed up the actual shaft is just one homogeneous fill going like I said somebody's gone around bulldozing all the rubbish off the surface you have it just on point dumping it in yeah so in the end although Viktor enjoyed his chance to draw the Roman invasion of 43 ad we didn't find any evidence of military activity and Sindel the evidence we unearthed points more to a picture like this of a 2nd to 4th century Rome on a British farming settlement that was most likely reusing ditches that had been open at the time with the invasion and part of an Iron Age landscape or at least that's the latest theory for consideration don't be on the evidence really guy you know I mean we've got a series of ditches haven't worked none of which have the same fill as each other together and they'll end up arguing theories but there's one thing that we're all agreed on that we've Scotch the 150 year old idea that there was once a Roman fort on this hill which means of course that the first Roman fort ever built in Britain is still out there somewhere just waiting to be found [Music]

Channel: Time Team Classics

Views: 169,528

Keywords: Team Team, Archaeology, History, Education, Educational, British TV, British History, Tony Robinson, Phil Harding, John Gater, Stewart Ainsworth, Mick Aston, archeological dig, Channel 4, Time Team Full Episodes, Full Episode

Id: lFc7SpPINDU

Length: 48min 44sec (2924 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 07 2020