Binchester Roman Fort, County Durham, archive completion and post-excavation assessment

Excavations were carried out at Vinovia, near Bishop Auckland, from 1976-81 (funded by the Manpower Services Commission) and from 1986-91 (as an undergraduate student training project for Bradford University). Both campaigns were followed by short periods of archive preparation, but no funding was available for post-excavation analysis and research. This year EH funded Birmingham University Field Archaeology Unit to conduct an archive completion and a post-excavation assessment project, followed by a post-excavation programme.

Although excavation was concentrated on the now-displayed remains of a 4th-century bath suite attached to the Commandant's House, and on part of the residential range of the house, an opportunity was afforded to sample earlier deposits and to characterise the changing function of this area of the fort between the 1st and 4th centuries, including a period of large-scale industrial production in the early-2nd century. Probably of most significance, however, was the complex late-Roman and sub-Roman sequences on the site and Binchester has provided some of the most detailed information yet available for this period in the frontier system. The terminus post quem for Commandant's House in the mid-4th century is only the beginning of a long stratigraphic sequence during which the building is continually modified by the addition of a bath-suite, and subsequent extensions to that suite, followed by a period when the building remained in use while knowledge of various aspects of Roman technology fell away. Even when the buildings were at least partially ruined, significant activity still occurred at the site. This included a phase of cattle butchery and metalworking, the extraction of the metal fittings from the bath-house (presumably for reuse), and the systematic removal of the arch stones from the bath-suite. Except the removal of the arch, all these activities occurred prior to a mid-6th-century burial, suggesting that there was still a well-organised community present in the area during the sub-Roman period.

The stratigraphic record is supplemented by large finds assemblages, especially of pottery, glass, small finds, and animal bones. These are not distributed evenly through the sequence, but are concentrated in 2 main phases. The earlier is linked to the industrial phase of the early-2nd century and includes redeposited material as well as apparently fresh domestic debris, all used as make-up dumps in and around the industrial workings. Given the early date of this activity within the history of the fort, the redeposited material can still be taken as good evidence for ceramic use and meat supply between the late-1st and early-2nd century. The pottery and bone assemblages associated with the butchery episode after bath-suite fell out of use give a comparable insight for later activity. Binchester provides substantial evidence for periods when such material is rare, and is of particular importance because it does not lie on the actual line of Hadrian's Wall. The area enclosed by its defences was larger than most such forts and underlines its prominence in the Roman system.

The results of this work complements that at other north eastern sites (Piercebridge, South Shields, Greta Bridge, and Chester-le-Street) to provide a comprehensive picture life on the northern frontier.