Hunting for treasure on a Roman archaeology website stuffed with ‘high-ranking’ officers
Sometimes the only way is down. I know that’s tough to hear, for any trampolinists, astronauts or fleas who may be reading – but everything worth knowing is usually below us. Thank you, Isaac Newton. And thank you, Tony Robinson and the archaeologists of the world.
They are finding new stuff down there all the time. Whether that’s an Egyptian coffin, or a T-Rex gnasher – it’s all veritable gold dust. OK, dust is the operative word here, but you are getting my sales pitch on digging, yes? That’s why I travel straight to Peterborough the moment we receive wind there might be a Roman “discovery” there.
My taxi plonks me in the middle of the pristine East Anglian countryside and I’m met by our DigVentures hosts, who are overseeing the operation. “We’ve always known there’s something going on here,” says senior project officer Nat Jackson, who leads me around one of the three trenches being dug. “But this is really exciting.”
Tom was given a crash course in digging (Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
A chorus of anticipatory ‘ooooohs’ chime in my head. “Alright. What’s occurring?” I ask in my own accent. “Just you wait,” comes the response.
I’m told we’re standing on top of a 2nd-century Roman settlement, with several villas discovered here over the years. Nat says back in the day this area was a popular spot for those all-conquering early Italians. “It’s great soil here,” says Nat.
We’re just down the road from the famous ancient town Durobrivae, a fortified settlement that was found in the 1930s. But with DigVentures’ latest unearthings, it turns out there were an awful lot more Romans here than first thought.
The digging in full swing(Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
While I’m shown around, the DigVentures team are on a tea-break. It’s all sensationally civilised – we’re in an idyllic rural setting and some early Autumn sunshine is putting a lovely tilt on proceedings.
“Right, here you will see what we’ve found,” says Nat. They lead me to Trench One – and indicates to what looks like a glass vase from Homebase. “We believe this is human remains.”
This time the dramatic sound effect commonly referred to as “dun dun duuuun” plays inside my brain. “It would be fair to say this holds the cremations of a high-ranking Roman,” says another senior project officer, Harriet Tatton.
Tom with archaeologist Harriet Tatton and a roman coin(Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
This is big…I think? “Yeah, this is up there with some of the best moments of my career,” says Harriet. “We’re going to run this up to a lab after this dig wraps up and then we’ll really find out more.”
Before I can theorise about this mysterious Roman leader, I’m handed a shovel and a trowel and instructed to have a dig myself. Tea break is over, and the 30-strong contingent get back to working away in the Peterborough soil.
“This trowel is your new best friend,” says Harriet. I tell her my own best friend hasn’t returned my calls for a week, and therefore she is probably correct.
The ‘human remains’ that were found(Image: Tim Merry/Staff Photographer)
She pretends she doesn’t hear this and I’m given a rapid “digging lesson”. I’m confined to ‘Trench Three’, one of the less active trenches which is a place I “won’t make too much of a mess”.
After five minutes of rooting around in the mud, Harriet tells me “I’m a natural.” I’m not sure I believe her, so I murmur something about my bad back, bringing the charade to a halt.
The rest of the more abled-bodied team consists of senior archaeologists and a contingent of passionate volunteers. What surprises me is how young so many of them are – several of them “heard about this through a Reddit forum”… not your conventional archaeology recruitment process.
There’s also a group of people who have just landed from war-torn Ukraine, and are now lending their hands to the operation. “We are happy to be away from that place…at least for now,” one of them tells me, mentioning a rather hellacious getaway from a Kyiv train station.
A love of the past has brought the unusual group together in this pocket of countryside – and it’s beautiful to see. “There really is nothing like this,” says Harriet. “I feel incredibly privileged and lucky to be here.” And so do I.
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