Huge Roman fort in Northumberland to be excavated in lottery-backed project
Hadrian's Wall
The Vindolanda Charitable Trust will lead the excavation of the project at Magna fort
By Tony Henderson
10:00, 13 DEC 2022 UPDATED10:01, 13 DEC 2022
Magna fort with Walltown Crags beyond (Image: Vindolanda Trust)
Five years of exciting exploration is to begin at a buried Roman fort on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland which is threatened by climate change.
The Vindolanda Charitable Trust has been awarded a £1.625m grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund towards the £2.5m project at Magna fort. The 52-acre site is bigger than the nearby Vindolanda fort, which produces a stream of outstanding finds in excavations each year.
“This funding is brilliant news and we are overjoyed,” said Dr Andrew Birley, Vindolanda Trust chief executive and director of excavations. “The fort of Magna, unlike nearby Vindolanda, has never been subjected to a sustained research excavation but recent geoarchaeological survey work has proved beyond doubt that Magna has some of, if not the richest, environmental deposits thus far identified from the world heritage site.”
Magna was home to two of the most exotic Roman regiments to have served in Roman Britain - the Syrian archers and the Dalmatian Mountain soldiers.
“It is a dramatic place with views 50 miles to the west and the Solway Firth, Alston Moor and the crags of Hadrian’s Wall,” said Dr Birley. Its adjacent civilian settlement was also bigger that that at Vindolanda.
More:
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/huge-roman-fort-excavated-lottery-25738260