operation Jericho

Epiacum From Old School House

Want to work along side archaeologists at one of Britain’s most unique sites?

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Do you fancy working alongside archaeologists at one of Britain’s most unique sites? Epiacum is a totally unmatched, one-off archaeological and historical setting going back to mesolithic times, through iron age occupation, the Romans (obviously) into the Medieval and right up to modern times and everything in-between.

 

Epiacum From Old School House

 

Help to dismantle the dry stone wall that cuts Epiacum Roman fort in half. The wall was put up around 1843 right across the middle of the fort and we are getting together a team of people under the supervision of archaeologist Al Oswald who has made this project possible by generously donating his time over the fortnight, along with others, to dismantle the wall, identify the Roman bits and remove the rest.

Built around 122 AD Epiacum is the only Roman Fort of its kind in the entire Roman Empire and you can be part of the next phase of it’s history.

Volunteers will learn about the history of the fort and the astonishing history of area that has everything from Bronze age mining and burials, Iron age villages, The Roman occupation, medieval farming and death, right through to you making history in September.

To be part of the A Team click here

Let me help

 

Want to work along side archaeologists at one of Britain’s most unique sites? Read More »

Want to cook?

Love cooking? Like beautiful scenery? Up for a challenge?

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Do you love a cooking?

Do you like beautiful scenery?

Fancy something a bit different? 

 

Want to cook?

 

If fancy being part of something amazing and creating a memory to last a lifetime at a unique event with a bunch of amazing people… then this could be your time…

 

Epiacum 2018 view

 

Epiacum Heritage (a charity) is holding a two week long event / project in the beautiful hills near Alston in Cumbria. The project is being led by us in conjunction with archaeologist Al Oswald, other team members and specialists and volunteers.

 

Epiacum Heritage is a charity set up to preserve, promote and learn (through responsible archaeology) about the unique Roman fort at Epiacum. We need to feed approximately 30 people a day for two weeks in September (2nd – 14th Sept 2018) at base camp.

 

 

The aim is to have a vibrant camp with musicians, story tellers and so on. If you are looking for a challenge, and an experience / memory to last a lifetime at this unique event and site, with a bunch of amazing people… then this could be your moment…

 

How long can I come for?

Volunteer for a day, a week or all 2 weeks to help provide sustenance for the team. Be part of the team. Be part of something special in the beauty of this amazing landscape.

 

When is it?

2nd – 14th September 2018 – just let us know when you want to come

 

Spaces limited

Once the team is complete – that’s it, the door closes on this brilliant experience. Get your name in asap.

 

Let us know you are interested as soon as possible so you don’t miss out

Go to the volunteer page and fill in the form and we will get back to you ASAP… Let me help

 

Be part of an amazing experience

Love cooking? Like beautiful scenery? Up for a challenge? Read More »

The wall

Be part of something you will remember for the rest of your life….

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Be part of something amazing this September …

This September a team of volunteers led by archaeologist Al Oswald are going to be helping to record and dismantle the dry stone wall that was erected in 1843 across the middle of Epiacum Roman fort. This is no normal dry stone wall though. Many of the stones used to construct the wall by the victorians came from the Roman fort.

 

The wall

We have already identified a base of a Roman column and other architectural features embedded in the wall.

You could be part of an amazing team of volunteers and part of the next stage in the history of this astonishing site.

Working with the team you could be helping:

  • by handling 2000 year old parts of a Roman fort
  • helping with the PR and recording
  • helping in the camp
  • helping with social media / photography / blogging etc.
  • helping with general management or security
  • helping beforehand from the comfort of your own home by helping us plan and get sponsors

We need your help this September (or before if you can)

Click here for more information
Click here to get involved

Be part of something you will remember for the rest of your life…. Read More »

Help us breakdown a wall

You know that feeling when there is a wall in your way?

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You know that feeling when there is a wall in your way and there is no way to ignore it?

A wall that stops you from doing something?

We have such a wall. Like a real wall. A real dry stone wall.

 

Help us breakdown a wall

 

You see we have a roman fort that was built it the wilds of what is now the border between Northumberland and Cumbria. The fort was built around 122 AD. It is unique. No other roman fort was ever constructed like this, which is highly unusual given the roman love of standardisation. So from an archaeological point of view, Epiacum is a highly prized and valued site.

Then later in history a series of enclosure acts from 1845 onwards created rights to own land if that land was enclosed in some way. In the case of much of this area the answer was to build dry stone walls to claim rights to land to be farmed. As a result a lot of dry stone walls were constructed over a very short period of time. One such wall just happened to go right across the middle of Epiacum roman fort.

 

 

The first problem is that when people visit the site these days they can’t see the fort in it’s entirety as the wall gets in the way.

The second issue is that people have to walk around the wall and climb back onto the fort to see the other half of it and this is damaging the impressive ramparts that have, until now) stood the test of time. However, some people don’t walk around and clamber over the wall! Apart from the very present danger of injury doing this it damages both the wall and the site as the stones fall.

The site is so important that it is a scheduled site and therefore protected by law. But we have permission the remove most of the wall.

There are a couple of problems with this:

  1. Firstly some of the stones in the wall are actually from the fort and we need the help of expert archaeologists to help identify these stones to both preserve them and learn what we can about the construction of this unique building.
  2. Secondly each meter of the wall weighs a ton…. and we can’t use heavy lifting gear as the sort of vehicles needed for the job would damage the fort. So the job has to be done by hand. Stone by stone.

This all costs. We need equipment, volunteers and we need to feed and house the volunteers whilst this work is done.

We need your help and here’s how…

Click here to see how you can help in a very real way

You know that feeling when there is a wall in your way? Read More »

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