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sovay tipped me off about the Roman port excavations at Caerleon, which are finishing at the end of the month, so I wandered over the Severn Bridge to have a look. I always forget how close Wales actually is: it was 30 minutes from my front door to the Caerleon amphitheatre. Luckily I arrived just as a nice young archaeologist was beginning a guided tour of the dig, so I tagged along and took pics.
Apparently this is only the second Roman port to be excavated in Britain, but it's much the grander affair of the two. Where London was a ramshackle timber-built trading port, Caerleon was the military gateway to Britannia, complete with prestige buildings and imposing frontage. They even discovered part of a monumental inscription - or what they think is a monumental inscription - reading not "Croeso i Gymru" but something to do with Augustus (the only word they actually found).
The whole gubbins sits in a single field between the amphitheatre and the river Usk, which is invisible here behind a veil of bushes, though actually meandering all around the site:
Aug. 29th, 2011
sovay tipped me off about the Roman port excavations at Caerleon, which are finishing at the end of the month, so I wandered over the Severn Bridge to have a look. I always forget how close Wales actually is: it was 30 minutes from my front door to the Caerleon amphitheatre. Luckily I arrived just as a nice young archaeologist was beginning a guided tour of the dig, so I tagged along and took pics.
Apparently this is only the second Roman port to be excavated in Britain, but it's much the grander affair of the two. Where London was a ramshackle timber-built trading port, Caerleon was the military gateway to Britannia, complete with prestige buildings and imposing frontage. They even discovered part of a monumental inscription - or what they think is a monumental inscription - reading not "Croeso i Gymru" but something to do with Augustus (the only word they actually found).
The whole gubbins sits in a single field between the amphitheatre and the river Usk, which is invisible here behind a veil of bushes, though actually meandering all around the site:
sovay tipped me off about the Roman port excavations at Caerleon, which are finishing at the end of the month, so I wandered over the Severn Bridge to have a look. I always forget how close Wales actually is: it was 30 minutes from my front door to the Caerleon amphitheatre. Luckily I arrived just as a nice young archaeologist was beginning a guided tour of the dig, so I tagged along and took pics.
Apparently this is only the second Roman port to be excavated in Britain, but it's much the grander affair of the two. Where London was a ramshackle timber-built trading port, Caerleon was the military gateway to Britannia, complete with prestige buildings and imposing frontage. They even discovered part of a monumental inscription - or what they think is a monumental inscription - reading not "Croeso i Gymru" but something to do with Augustus (the only word they actually found).
The whole gubbins sits in a single field between the amphitheatre and the river Usk, which is invisible here behind a veil of bushes, though actually meandering all around the site: