Wealth of Roman finds in dig near fort:

Dig near fort offers more clues to North Wales’ history

SEVERAL hundred Roman artefacts thought to date back almost 2,000 years have been discovered on the outskirts of a Roman fort.

Shards of “highly decorated” pottery have been unearthed in a recent dig (pictured) on the former site of Ysgol Pendalar in Caernarfon, which lies near Segontium Roman Fort.

As well as tableware imported from Gaul – a region now largely covered by France – ancient cooking pots and amphoras (large pottery jugs used for carrying liquids) have also been discovered.

The director of the excavation, David Hopewell of the Gwynedd Archaeological Trust, said the area appears to have been part of a trading settlement between the first and fourth century.

Many of the objects found are likely to have been brought in with the army as the fort – established nearly 2,000 years ago as a military base – was used to control the land and coast conquered by the Romans.

Mr Hopewell, said: “One of the major clues as to what is going on is the amount of artefacts we’ve come up with.

“So far we’ve found several hundred shards of Roman pottery – a lot of it very highly decorated tableware that had been imported from Gaul.

“We have lots of black burnished ware which are cooking pots that come from Dorset, along with amphoras which are big pottery jugs used for transporting liquids from around the world.

“In amphoras for instance, they would have been bringing in wine, olive oil and they had a particular pungent fish sauce that they used.”

Mr Hopewell said a Roman well has also been found as part of the dig, as well as areas of burning from activity from what is believed to be a civilian settlement.

Bright orange and red soil discovered during the dig also suggests evidence of the use of industrial ovens and pits in the area where Mr Hopewell said craft and trade would likely have been carried out.

“This site was covered by a concrete slab and we didn’t really know what was here so we’re working on a grant aided project by Cadw to assess the archaeology in this area,” he said.

“Fortunately, there is quite a lot of archaeology surviving at the site. We’re two weeks into the excavation with one week to go so we’re only going to be able to sample what we’ve got here but we can see it’s an important site with lots of activity to do with the settlement outside the Roman fort.”

Up until the early 20th century, the area was all farm land until building work began in the early 1920s.

It was around this time that numerous artefacts and the foundations of ancient wooden buildings were discovered when the site was initially excavated by Mortimer Wheeler in the 1920s.

It was noted that the builders of houses along Constantine Road and Vaynol Road had discovered Roman archaeology.

Wheeler recorded a road, wells, ovens, pits and traces of wooden buildings typical of a vicus – a type of Roman civilian settlement commonly found alongside the roads leading from forts. This would have been a street of wooden buildings where craft and trade was carried out.

However, while Mr Hopewell says no such foundations have been discovered at the site yet, there is clear evidence of Roman occupation in the area.

Around 20 volunteers, local school children and students from North Wales Training have been helping experts at the site.