River bed trawl yields another glittering prize
ASTUDY of more than 3,600 Roman objects deposited in a North East river has won a national award.
The items came from a procession of people, from Roman soldiers and camp followers to traders and craftsmen, who streamed across the Tees over the centuries into what is now County Durham.
What are believed to have been offerings to the gods – many for safe passage on the way to and from the northern military frontier – were recovered over the years from 1987 from the river bed at Piercebridge by County Durham divers Bob Middlemass and Rolfe Mitchinson,
Eighteen years ago Dr Philippa Walton met the divers when they visited her as she worked as Newcastle-based finds liaison officer for the Portable Antiquities Scheme, to which historical items which have been discovered are reported.
In 2017 Philippa and colleague Hella Eckardt, from Reading University, began a study in which they examined every one of the Roman items, with their findings recently published under the title Bridge Over Troubled Water.
Now their study has won the research project of the year category in the Current Archaeology magazine awards.
Phillipa, whose family come from the Hexham area, is now a lecturer in classical archaeology at Birkbeck, University of London.
She said: “It has been an amazing project. The collection of items is of international importance in terms of understanding Roman Britain and in particular the northern frontier.
“The majority of the items were deliberately put into the river as offerings.
“Crossing the river by the bridge at Piercebridge was probably the trigger to make an offering to ensure safety.
“The award is the result of a collaborative effort from many volunteers and archaeologists over 18 years,” said Philippa, who was the Roman finds expert for Channel 4’s Time Team for several years .
The bridge was an important crossing point, carrying the main Roman road of Dere Street from the legionary base at York to the Roman fort of Binchester near Bishop Auckland and on to Corbridge and then Scotland.
The collection, ranging from beautiful gold jewellery to a razor handle in the shape of a leg and sandal-clad foot, was declared Treasure at a Durham Coroner’s Court hearing in December 2019.
The collection has been acquired by the Museum of Archaeology at Palace Green library in Durham City, where items from the river haul are on display.