borderlands

heritage design – aspiration and redemption

Durham Miners Gala 2010

Tuesday July 19, Westminster, London (This is the report on our previously noted visit – [Link]) Bianca Carpeneti and Michael Shanks visiting Alan Campbell MP at the House of Commons Our current work on the archaeological project at Binchester UK includes a major focus on cultural resource management (CRM), as it gets called in the [...]


Binchester 2011 – the team

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A week into the field season at Binchester – a field trip to the central section of Hadrian’s Wall. Here is the team – click on the image for a bigger version.


the picturesque – again

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Up from Peel Bothy, Hadrian’s Wall, central section. These photogenic experiences are starting to bother me …


Steel Rigg – dawn

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Field season 2011. Staying by Hadrian’s Wall – Peel Bothy, Once Brewed (built/restored by John Clayton in the nineteenth century as part of his reconstruction of the Wall). Two more early morning runs – refusing to succumb to jet lag.


Hadrian’s Wall – Peel Bothy

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(Use the controls to navigate through the panorama) Peel Bothy is a renovated workers’ cottage right by one of the turrets in this infamous central section of Hadrian’s Wall. This week I have been staying there. Another morning run.


Longshanks in the north

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Touring the Tweed with Gary (Devore). Though overly restored in the nineteenth century, the church of St Cuthbert at Norham on the Tweed still has some of the sumptuousness that originates in its original foundation by the bishops of Durham (Durham Cathedral houses the bones and grave of Cuthbert, and Norhamshire was not part of [...]


archaeological research at the edge of empire

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This appeared under the title Edges of Empire – the new excavations at Binchester Roman town, UK in the 2010 opening edition of the online magazine Electrum – [Link] Gary Devore and Michael Shanks Binchester Barrack block turned abattoir – the late cattle ranch in the corner of the fort. The town extended beyond over [...]


CILVRNVM

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Fog at Heathrow has kept me in the NE. Here I am up the Tyne Valley – where the Roman bridge crossed the river, carrying Hadrian’s Wall.


VINOVIVM

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Update – a revised version now appears at – http://www.mshanks.com/2011/01/archaeological-research-at-the-edge-of-empire/ We are starting to plan for our excavations next summer of Binchester Roman town in the north of England. Here is a short news item about this last summer, released yesterday. July 2010 was the second archaeological field season for the Binchester Project. We are [...]


Hadrian’s Wall | Stanegate | Vindolanda

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(Use the controls to navigate through the panorama.) In the North East of England for the Binchester excavations – Vinovium.org. Just to the north of our site. Looking southwest, the Stanegate (Roman, named “stone road” in early medieval times) runs from the left of the picture, through the fort of Vindolanda and then straight up [...]


Sycamore Gap

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Hadrian’s Wall, edge of the built environment


Dere Street | Chew Green

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In the North East of England for the Binchester excavations – Vinovium.org. Dere Street, the Roman road that passes through Binchester, here runs north across what is now the English-Scottish border. There was a medieval village – Kemblepath – up here in the wilds of Upper Coquetdale. On the site of Chew Green, the Roman [...]


Coquetdale

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In the North East of England for the Binchester excavations – Vinovium.org. Coquetdale – a remarkable valley to the north of Hadrian’s Wall. A fascinating archaeological landscape. Lordenshaws – prehistoric rock carvings and hill fort. Shillmoor – from when the borders settled down in the eighteenth century. Harbottle – feudal border stronghold, motte and bailey; [...]


Norham Station

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I can’t help but be fascinated with what is slipping from memory and becoming “history”. And the romance of the railway. Just found a wonderful site called “Forgotten relics” – it has a page on a favorite village of mine (the castle straight out of Scott’s “Marmion”) on a branch line in the Scottish borders [...]


Walltown Crags

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Checking out Hadrian’s Wall for our summer tour. Chorography – checking out the car parks!


VINOVIVM

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Our project to explore the Roman town of Binchester – Vinovium – reached the news at Stanford today – [Link] The report took an appropriately student-centered focus. And we certainly had a wonderful team last year. Project site – VINOVIVM.ORG


Howick – The Bathing House

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In the tracks of northern antiquaries, summer 2007 Part of the estate of the second Earl Grey (1832 Reform Bill) on the Northumberland coast, UK.


Flodden Field

In the tracks of northern antiquaries, summer 2007 September 9 1513: in the low rolling hills of north Northumberland an invading Scottish army was defeated in the bloodiest ever encounter between England and Scotland. James IV, King of the Scots, nine of his Earls, fourteen Lords of Parliament, five Highland Chiefs and 10,000 men at [...]


Rob Roy

In the tracks of northern antiquaries, summer 2007 Abbotsford, Scottish borders, home of Walter Scott: armor from the field of Waterloo (1815); the skull of Robert the Bruce (cast, 1734).


Bamburgh, Northumberland UK


Lindisfarne UK

Lindisfarne. Heart of Celtic Christianity, 9th century AD.


Dunstanburgh UK

Link


Bamburgh UK

Site of the court of the Kingdom of Northumbria – at its height in the seventh and eighth centuries.


Chillingham – UK borders

The tomb of Sir Ralph Grey. In the south transept of St John’s church, Chillingham, Northumberland.