New Excavations at Birdoswald Roman Fort Poised to Unearth Fresh Insights About Life on Hadrian’s Wall

The 2023 season will see the largest expanse under excavation at Birdoswald since the 1990s, including areas both to the west and east of the fort, as well as north of the fort beyond the line of Hadrian's Wall.

The current project is examining houses, communal buildings and workplaces beyond the fort walls – giving researchers a remarkable glimpse of daily life on the frontier.

Visitors to the English Heritage site of Birdoswald are able to view the ongoing excavation from 14 June until 7 July by booking guided tours.

Over the course of the five-year project, which began in 2021, more than 200 Newcastle archaeology students will join the project’s training excavation, ensuring they get hands-on training in the latest high-tech archaeological methods. Newcastle’s archaeology degrees are officially accredited by the Chartered Institute for Archaeologists, and this excavation helps ensure that students graduate with the practical skills sought by employers.

To the east, work will continue on a well-preserved bathhouse, first discovered in 2021. The area to the west has never before been explored, with data from geophysical surveys hinting at an open area surrounded by structures. It is hoped that this year’s work will provide further clues about its use and significance.

This summer is the first time that such a large expanse immediately north of Hadrian's Wall has been so extensively and systematically examined. The project has already discovered that intensive domestic and industrial activity took place beyond the Wall, and this previous work will be followed up and expanded.

Previous finds here included large quantities of domestic pottery, hobnails (short nails for protecting the soles of footwear), and jasper (a semi-precious stone) and glass intaglio stones of a type originally set in rings and used to seal documents, much of which is now available for visitors to the site to view.

Findings to date suggest that the settlement beyond the fort walls was carefully planned, and that specific activities related to everyday life took place in designated zones. It also suggests that the frontier can be more accurately thought of as a zone, rather than a distinct line or boundary. It is anticipated that a new ‘big picture’ of Roman frontier life will emerge from the archaeology of the fort settlements, which can now be seen as military towns.