Time Team S11-E05 syndale, kent

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 Richboro 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 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 right on the bottom of that ditch was in fact Claudian pottery this is the first race that you do exactly where you're standing now well graphics have done me the kind of matte lips I'd understand here yes we're just there we just stood on this trench here and behind us is the other trench for Doug 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 there 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 ever be a real big story for British art Italy wonderful 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 3 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 Paul's theory the only one that's got actually Claudian pottery from is anticipation one else 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 and we don't know whether they got here in a couple of days whether it took a couple of weeks so what do they think of our 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 of that whole Roman conquest but it's going to be incredibly difficult to pick out sir 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 yeah 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 defences so it's going to have a rampart around all four sides of Earth and outside that double ditch is one ditch another ditching outside that in each side there'll be a gateway timber gateway built with big of massive timber posts in each corner there'll be a tower writing out of the rampart to give views to the outside and finally dating is very crucial to actually pinning down the date of this thing because we're looking at ten years in time so what pottery we want the same young pottery but 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 forget that let me correct it well they don't want much do they but to my surprise their master plan at the moment is to do nothing that is until GF is have surveyed the area where Paul found the clearest evidence for a Roman military ditch the hope is that GF is will not only detect any other Roman ditches but shows if the two bits Paul 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 I've actually got a plan here of the 18th century gardens this is date at 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 house is there can you see the symmetry of the gardens that go with the house yeah it's nowhere near its little work here and it's six other totally 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 stuck that on top that's what I'm wondering I think there's such an obvious earth worker and the shape and 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 Frankie oh wow Stewart's giving us a target to dig that's not dependent on GF is in valuation French down the Scott 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 first hole in it and it's going to be a long trench to see if we can find a continuation of the Roman ditch Paul discovered so the process of testing the theory that there is a Roman fort here has well and truly begun maybe take a shave more off but we're getting close on and now then ah now there 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 by Roman fort expert Tony Wilmot 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 score the interpretation into the section that said Digger 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 this is straight 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 of is this one as depicted on my idiots guide with a steep side where the attacker falls in and 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 that fits best with what Paul's found so you reckon we've definitely got a military ditch on the west looks very very very good very good indeed 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 they're roaming right now question is dating this looks like Belgic Grogg tempered where it could be anytime between the late Iron Age and about 400 plus AD just hurt slowdown of it Belgic grog tempered yes so what does that leave it means the pottery it's both about this both handmade and wheel turned it's fired black it contains the grog in this context is not rub it's a foot prefix I ground up clay mixers are filler with the clay of the pot itself you want to expert this is the expert explains it fills has got a rim ah ty right now look that looks a bit more diagnostic now I'd like it is cleaned up this looks awfully like it's from a bi conical beaker mine up Church where which should date from about the year the conquest through to 100 to 130 ie D quite a nice diagnostic piece so mainly what you've got is a bit of mixed up earlier Potteries we have some later pottery you expect this is the first layer we've got this so if we keep going for 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 is that they're relatively modern this one being a recent field boundary we know this because it's in the wrong position to be the ditch paul 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'm 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 sort of trench in anyway I think it's time for Plan B don't you like it which might be well we said there was Sousa checklist didn't we the things we want to find so why don't we try and attack that and it seems to me it may be the best place go is round to the front of the four nearest to where Watling Street is the m1 of Roman roads Watling Street actually cuts across the edge of our site it looks as if Watling Street actually goes over this earth work as a physical relationship suggesting that the walking street is later than this earth week what what date is the what is right now 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 the ad 50-ish so it's either very early Roman or its 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 Ling Street 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 erm you said you can see the yellow natural there and the yellow natural behind us alright you need an expert eye to see it at the moment but this ditch is about 15 metres 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't forgive you a boob amber the digging sorry I'm a bit late 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 in it is this as near as you can get to a Roman Spade it's the nearest we've found as far as I'm aware it's definitely a digging tool I mean you see it dig with it and in this nice brick or a fish it's a good tool to use but where you're in problem is is if you can try and shovel with it like that yeah and that's where I was missing a decent sugar level you can't get down earnest 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 in trench - we've got what we think is our first coin resting on a shovel ready for guy to see look I think a little coin is come Atlas ball heat fan bottom metal detectorists right the key thing is the size that takes a straight look it's you can see it's quite clear isn't it the legend quite clear and they're just to see if I can get that up 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 in fact 300 years after the invasion what we're looking for is signs of first century occupation ideally military finds although not the bids dropped by Phil so is that a military equipment gets lost it that's exactly right it's not it's just one round on the on the pin and then and slipped off it's a really cold day but this exercise has got filled thinking and not 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 see 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 roam and so if you had Roman military build anything you have hobnails 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 accord the plan Tony we fought we go through this topsoil and that this was the natural subsoil but Kerry's been digging into it when it feels like natural it looks like natural it's got Roman pottery in it which means this is Roman infill down at this depth and Malcolm what you view the pottery well let's have a look now you've got yes you've got this is Simon this is a very eroded same in its sauce its surface it's from a dragon door 36 dish posters 70 AD post 78 I see this piece this is a vertical inverted grim cooking pot very wet heavily averted probably third century third third CS probably third century this is from the perinatal girth of a bi conical not the Karen I think Arthur coronated good are you guys this is probably the first time that our viewers will ever serve singing interrogating girth of a bike Annika so what you're saying here 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 you've got to get down another 150 years of topsoil also 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 and making it all the more difficult for us but at least now we know the Roman archaeology is buried at different depths across this side which is why we're wasting no time opening trench 3 because as well as locating Paul's Roman ditch in trench 1 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 Claudius as the fourth emperor of Rome the doddering half-wit put in place by the soldiers on his invasion to Britain to prove his whole 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 Dan whether with the coin come fro that coin came from about three inches below this marker that we've put in here and 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 at the bottom but it's looking good so maybe that lower fill is actually going to have the Claudian pottery they go with that coin what we're looking for all day so you think we could find this part this is a great start it really is 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 going to be easier said than done it's difficulty enough to see each other let alone the archaeology right so we're gonna find a Roman for in here today we're testing a theory that there was once a Roman fort here but struggling without any guidance from GF is 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 known more by tradition than by remains actually existing today it's still traceable round the garden the stable-yard Paul Wilkinsons theory is influenced by the fact that over the last few years he's been excavating a 3rd to 4th century Roman settlement running alongside Watling Street and he believes it to be the Roman town of Jarrell even when you already that those Roman cemeteries to the north there and so you know we're looking at a settlement pattern already the Douro place name is an old english name meaning fertile camp and it's another reason Paul thinks there may have been a fort here on a more practical level Stuart's been looking at the possible shape of a Roman fort on our hilltop 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 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 you 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 side 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 going to 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 our picture of nothing I thought I'd say that before you did to add to our problems today our team leader Neil has to leave us to attend an important meeting but before he goes I want to talk to him about my empty checklist should I be getting worried not one tick in any of these boxes no but we've got two coins which are always like half a cheek if you like 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 circulated 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 note written something up time to panic he's right because the ditch we've discovered under the earthwork Bank could be part of the fort it's big enough and in a good position on the brow of the hill beautiful edge there we're gonna get another 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 absolutely I mean we've got the Claudine coin out there yes there in amongst masses of Roman material so yep no doubts its 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 the Roman fort the ditch Paul found would be the outer of the two but the mystery at the moment is that we can find any continuation of Paul's ditch either in trench 1 or over here in trench 3 because of this we're now reopening one of Paul's trenches to check the alignment so what you need henan well that's what I want the little fella for I mean look you see that pile of dirt Phil want Henry to work out how much deeper we'll have to dig to get down to the same Roman level but Paul found given the dumping of soil that's gone on in this area Henry yeah did he call you the little fella shall we decades there's not like this we're not superannuated old hippie I think everyone's agreed this is a pig of a site to get to grips with not just the landscaping but also the changing geology makes it difficult to read but we have to remember it is worth the trouble finding evidence of a Claudian fort here 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 he'd often read in history books that it was 40 or 50 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 going to have to end up controlling it and remember that the cosine is 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 close to the coast because they would move most of their bulk materials by sea so this is a key road route nagisa see rude so Sindel must have played or any fault 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 starts being 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 and 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 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 for line the two up the ditch should come through come here there which explains why we didn't find it absolutely in that trench we stops meet and a half day short the long last had diggers have got smiles on their faces is it just as the sun's come out or we actually got more evidence Brevoort 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 draw 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 got in the ground now would you think who looks to me like we've got a roman fort I I need more of a freight don't need more of more of a circuit we really need to get the profile of this Phil's ditch to see if it's the same as the profile of pause ditch 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 boats come right up to here even now that's right to me and this is only what about a mile away yeah our size - y'all can't see this Sea King it's like a cloud just hanging over the edge of the water there are little sign is just just little black blob just there we actually had in the Roman coastline there's no doubt that the site occupied a prime position and it's best appreciated on our 3d model general weddings that's amazing isn't it because 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 this still is a stream flowing through Faversham is a creek in there and that vessels were able to get much much closer to our site than began at 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 finding a gateway into the fort is 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 fort varied quite a bit some had curving ditches others didn't but most had an outer bank preventing attackers charging the gate the current debate is about how we sort out what we've got I think we do need to extend the trench positon least five metres and possibly even further to try and get that out of badge all the way level all that stuff down there has been so heftily landscaped that any any banks we're not sure we're not gonna find it 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 outwit you have it comes along like that the curves out in s that s shape then starts up again I'll forget and that's exactly what you've got that a long curving earth near shape gap and starting up again just a fantastic well carrenza sounds convinced but the GF is still seems very foggy to me nevertheless we're extending trench one to find more of Phil's curving ditch thankfully over in the eastern field 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 rowing fine but our focus well yeah there's nothing really that's definitely first-century but the thing I thought you might want to see fearless is these mummy-papa I wouldn'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 then just where they've been bent over this sides been a nightmare for geo fees but they've not given up yet go ahead Chris don't you finish the book of religion third a nice new field and I think we heard you got some interesting results this time oh that was exciting at 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 with 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 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 what well anything's worth it isn't it look what we've got here we've surveyed this huge area and we found this high resistance anomaly that's running along here see in the pot and it's right I mean what is it it's gotta be on a beach show me where it is a log around well alright okay on the ground well we're with it approximately 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 there there well I know what he 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 records 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 3 we still couldn't find any continuation of Paul's Roman military ditch in this direction we're following the light lines of inquiry we're not getting the answers hi Neil is Tony you still in your ADM one thing's for sure we're going to 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 I think let's just assess what we've got let's have a drink after a drink and we'll go at it tomorrow morning refreshed enrollees day three and our last chance to try and get to grips with the archaeology on this ridge 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 but as my blank check list 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 grant then we got a ditch come into here and then where the hell does it go I still think I'm not convinced that a ditch in trench one is pools big just because it's cutting material but potentially is yielding later pottery therefore that ditch could be third century in that trench yeah but definitely not the start of the day we were hoping for meanwhile I'm driving across to the other side of the site where we're looking for another of Paul's ditches but in theory joined up to encircle the hill like this Carranza 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 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 intriguing at this end of the trench and we're widening to get a better look this photography but the current debate is can we make sense of this site in the time we've got left Neal's convinced that Phil's curving ditch found yesterday is cutting through 2nd and 3rd century layers and can't be the first century military ditch 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's all sounds a bit like just chasing ditches but I am today 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 one own into the unknown I mean make it prove that it's a Ford surely to goodness you know we we need to leave out the odds over so after two days it don't look like we have got one are we gonna spend the rest of the three days arguing about whether or not it is or actually trying to come up with something constructive and so it's not a four but well this is what we think it could well be other words in the archaeology of assignment maybe this right yeah as we witness 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 fines and the feeling now is that the ditches could belong to a Roman farm rather than a 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 I think it's just too big and it's too clean it still looks a bit like a military ditch I'll grant you but it it hasn't got the context I mean as 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 Road and any earlier evidence would be deep beneath it we've got metal surface it's 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 it may be rut marks from transportation roads 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 dura leave'em the third and fourth century town he's been excavating here at Sindel but the whole team are now convinced that there wasn't a Roman fort here and it's time to break the news to Paul 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 ditch 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 are 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 a wider picture the best use of our time now it's felt would be to dig at the top of the hill 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 it must have surrounded something and we've got to find out what this around it that we've confident is not a thought the only way to finance look somewhere in the middle right 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 now about this hill will be useful 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 but I'm afraid so yes we were hoping this morning's going to be part of this this great big ditch going across the site but it's actually turning into sea there 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 side just look at the decoration it's really delicate all those Scrolls here you see there's a pair of birds on either side you see the bird turning back there another one over on this side well these are all off the same pole that's not that goes on there there's a bit missing there and I bet you that's the one no it must have been wrapped around oh no a little bit in the middle people look the most interesting thing about the whole thing's the way it's been riveted together do you see the lead rivets that have been put through on the top bit here there's a hole for a liberal it's been missing and what I thought what is incredible you could take such a flashy piece of decorated bottom but these sake great rivets through making it really ugly yeah but actually all we are I think right up till the 20th century you would still with it vessels and you can make them watertight so a valued vessel you'd look after like that even though it's incredibly ugly to us what are the dates this late first century somewhere played the imperiaz that's actually really good for us but still not back to invasion well that is by far the best find that we've had on this dig oh yeah wait there's a bone pin there oh yes sometimes you tell me something is a bone pin it just looks like a bit of old mank to me but that's beautiful is do you imagine trying to make that without breaking it so you did it and then we've got a ring there as well don't we think of that guy hexagonal alright this 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 might be feel those gullies and ditches that sort of thing building this is part of a curved roof tile called an M Breck's laid out on a row like that with the flat roof tiles technically on either side absolutely roman forum so we'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 2nd century I think that's a real possibility but that kind of thing that's that's a curved roof tile 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 gearing up 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 I don't know yeah but we've never really had a focus okay where we're 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 farm rather than fought and that apparently is why the geophysics didn'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 fort 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 gf is 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 close by George this trench in a door then John look that's what Chris got yesterday is huge anomaly running through their high resistance - where's our trench trenches going right across there unfortunately as we haven't got a lot of time this mystery doesn't take long to resolve so a Roman villa right 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 but it's layer we said it was gonna be fill so that that's all that matters would you believe it it's that park land landscape again and this is probably the worst geophysical site we've been on and we want to go dancing way we could sell the aggregate rights if only back in the 18th century they've known that creating a park here would cause so many problems but later landscaping isn't the reason we've had to dig deeply here this we've now established is a Roman well 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 point see that little radiate cloud on the head you know third century anything else yeah these are just coming up in and around the area of the shaft what the metal were what's very heavy isn't it filled out this is that with I think it might be a weight off a steel yard you know those 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 marks there for the decoration around the frill there's a place over in hartfordshire called much Adam which produced quite a distinctive sort of red pottery some of which had faces on the front dating to the fourth century some a little bit earlier but again you know you've got a complete mishmash having half dates all the way through um it's mostly third and fourth century but there's little bits of first you've got different levels in it or is it just all mixed up the actual shaft is just one homogeneous fill going right so somebody's gone around bulldozing all the rubbish off the surface you have just done point jumping 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 are no British farming settlement that was most likely reusing ditches that had been open at the time of the invasion and part of an Iron Age landscape or at least that's the latest theory for consideration don't you might 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 not to put any bunch of archaeologists together and they'll end up arguing theories but there's one thing that we're all agreed on that we've Scotch the hundred and fifty year old idea that there was once a Roman fought 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 our next Paulie has some cutting-edge ideas for a lawnmower themed chopper meanwhile over at home and leisure its notebooks at the ready for Trainspotting you

Channel: Reijer Zaaijer

Views: 316,211

Rating: 4.8695927 out of 5

Keywords: time, team, full, episodes, season

Id: fmJ9ZNB9AZ8

Length: 47min 1sec (2821 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 06 2013