Introduction

This Web site has its origins in excavations I conducted in the winter of 1990-1 on part of the Roman fort at Chester-le-Street in County Durham (GB). As a result of this, I (with the help of a number of others) produced both a popular account and an academic report on the project, but I have long felt that this was not enough. Moreover, neither were, in themselves, completely satisfactory as a means of communicating the information we discovered, and could give no impression of the experience of excavating the site.

Therefore, this is an attempt to weave together various strands - the popular account, the academic report, something of the personal experience and the circumstances in which it was carried out (for it was during the course of this excavation that Margaret Thatcher resigned from the leadership of the Conservative Party and thereby ceased to be prime minister of Great Britain). Take it at any level you wish, pursue links if you want to chase details, or just browse through the description of the dig. My own photographs illustrate both the discoveries of the excavation and the process itself.

Given the range and variety of the links within the different parts of the report, judicious use of the BACK button on your browser is advisable - some pages, such as the photos, offer no alternative destination, since you can arrive at them in so many different ways. So my advice is - as with any minefield - follow your own footsteps back out!

Thanks are due to all of the contributors who allowed their reports to be used in this Web site, and to Niall Hammond of the Antiquities Department of the Bowes Museum for providing material for its inclusion.

Mike Bishop
June 1997