Our Beyond the Wall community archaeology project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund and Northumberland National Park Authority got under way about 4 weeks ago. Since then we have organised two well attended training workshops for local volunteers and conducted two week-long landscape surveys. Over the next few posts we will be reporting on the events and bringing news of what will be coming up soon, and how you can get involved if you are interested. If you have a look at our sidebars you will find a summary of what our group is about. We are committed to actively engaging in the archaeology of our own area and seek to redress the enormous imbalance in both general public and much professional archaeological perceptions of our locality, focusing as it does almost entirely upon the Romans. We aim to demonstrate that there is far more to our local history than 300 years of Roman occupation, regardless of how wonderful its archaeological remains are and how important the Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site is. Beyond the Wall there is the evidence of over 4,000 years of human activity. The Roman period accounts for less than 10% of this history. It is time to start redressing the balance. I’m Phil Bowyer and I currently chair the group. I’ll be doing some of the posts, but you can also expect to hear from some of our active, committed and knowledgeable members.
Beyond the Wall 