Five years of exciting exploration is to begin at a buried Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland which is threatened by climate change.
The Vindolanda Charitable Trust has been awarded a £1.625m grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund towards the £2.5m project at Magna fort. The 52-acre site is bigger than the nearby Vindolanda fort, which produces a stream of outstanding finds in excavations each year.
“This funding is brilliant news and we are overjoyed,” said Dr Andrew Birley, Vindolanda Trust chief executive and director of excavations. “The fort of Magna, unlike nearby Vindolanda, has never been subjected to a sustained research excavation but recent geoarchaeological survey work has proved beyond doubt that Magna has some of, if not the richest, environmental deposits thus far identified from the world heritage site.”
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Magna was home to two of the most exotic Roman regiments to have served in Roman Britain - the Syrian archers and the Dalmatian Mountain soldiers.
“It is a dramatic place with views 50 miles to the west and the Solway Firth, Alston Moor and the crags of Hadrian’s Wall,” said Dr Birley. Its adjacent civilian settlement was also bigger that that at Vindolanda.
The first season’s work at the site, which is home to the trust’s Roman Army Museum, will start in July next year and continue until September. A main focus will be on understanding the impact of climate change on the buried remains of what may be up to six timber and stone forts over the centuries.
The trust will be working with Newcastle, Teesside and Edinburgh universities in a study of how water and oxygen are behaving underground as part of the impact caused by changing weather patterns. This will benefit understanding of the climate threat to archaeological deposits nationally and internationally and how strategies can be created to protect sites.
Preliminary boring at Magna has shown that archaeological preservation extends to six metres below ground- a huge potential bank of knowledge on life during the Roman occupation and beyond.
Dr Birley said: “The project at Magna focuses on the impact of climate change on our cultural heritage and will have a legacy for future management of this incredibly precious ancient Roman resource. In the last two decades the land to the north of the fort, which was historically covered by a marsh, has been rapidly drying out, damaging the covering of peat and organic soils that have formed above the ancient Roman landscape.
“Ancient and precious organic Roman layers are now being exposed, ultimately putting them at risk. We used to think that if remains were buried they were safe but apparently changes above ground could be having a massive impact below.”
One of the impacts on sensitive archaeological layers has been the trend towards deluge-type rain, and what was once swampy ground no longer retaining water. The exploration programme will move across part of the site, starting from milecastle 46 to the north and ending at the fort commanding officer’s house, which may provide evidence for continued occupation after the end of the Roman empire – as has been shown at Vindolanda.
The project will create five new jobs and volunteering opportunities, and also improved interpretation of the site, with activity programmes in a new purpose-built facility at the adjacent Roman Army Museum.
Dr Birley said: “The project focuses on both climate change and celebrating the diversity of the ancient people of Hadrian’s Wall, bringing the fort of Magna alive once more. We are grateful and delighted that thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to deliver this ground-breaking project.
“In a year when we have marked 1,900 years since the construction of Hadrian’s Wall began, we must also look to the future to protect this irreplaceable monument for the next 1,900 years and beyond. This project will help us understand the environmental pressures our site is under and enable us to plan appropriately for its future management”.
Anne Jenkins, executive director for business delivery at The National Lottery Heritage Fund, said: “It’s fantastic news that in the year we celebrate the 1900th year of Hadrian’s Wall, the Heritage Fund is supporting this forward-looking project from the Vindolanda Trust. Not only will this project share the diverse and untold heritage of the Magna site, but it will address the impacts of climate change on this significant archaeological site and undertake work in order to alleviate these effects.”
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