Birdoswald cemetery excavated before slips into river
Sep 18 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
University dig supervisor Doru Bogdan is from Romania – and will be investigating his long-ago ancestors. A small-scale Channel 4 Time Team evaluation in small trenches at Birdoswald in 1999 discovered two complete cremation urns, evidence that although the site was partially damaged by ploughing in the medieval period, there is still important archaeology hidden beneath the soil.
Mr Wilmot said that of two identifiable cremations , both were female. The findings of this excavation will be valuable in discovering more about Roman cremation cemeteries, practices and rituals.
The dig is being carried out under the rules of the Burial Act. After studying the findings, they will be deposited in Tullie House Museum in Carlisle and any human remains that are uncovered will be reburied.
The project will provide training opportunities in field archaeology for undergraduates from the university as part of an undergraduate training programme. Visitors to the site will be able to see work in progress on the dig. Birdoswald Roman Fort is open every day from 10am-5.30pm (last admission 5pm).
Admission adults: £4.50, concessions: £3.80, children: £2.30. For more information on the fort visit www.english-heritage.org.uk/birdoswald
Dedication
BUILT into a wall on a farm at Birdoswald is part of an altar dedicated to the troops who manned the fort in the Third and Fourth Centuries.
They represent the region’s unlikely link with Romania.
In the First and early Second Centuries, the Dacians, from what is now Romania, were the tough enemies of Rome under their king Decebalus.
Eventually, the Emperor Trajan triumphed over the Dacians whose fighting qualities impressed the Romans so much that they were recruited as auxiliary soldiers.
A cohort of Dacians worked on the building of Hadrian’s Wall and Birdoswald became the home of what was known as the First Cohort of Dacians, Hadrian’s Own, consisting of 1,000 infantry.
Although they were at Birdoswald for 200 years, they never forgot their roots, with the Dacian curved sword being carved on building inscriptions.
A gravestone from Birdoswald is to a child called Decebalus, after the Dacian king.
Another gravestone is that of Aurelius Concordius, the infant son of the commander of the Dacian garrison, Aurelius Julianus.
