FOR centuries, Carlisle’s Roman secrets lay buried.
Yet thanks to sheer good fortune, a determined community effort, and archaeological expertise, this once hidden history beneath the city's Carlisle Cricket Club site at Edenside has emerged, shedding fresh light on life in Britain under Roman occupation.
Carlisle was on the very edge of the Roman Empire.
A frontier town, protected by the impressive defensive barrier that was Hadrian’s Wall, the city was a Roman stronghold, vital militarily and powerfully symbolic for its imperial rulers.
The most recent 'community dig' at the Carlisle site, adjacent to Eden Bridge, is helping historians to piece together a more vivid and accurate picture of life in Roman Carlisle - largely through the hundreds of newly discovered artefacts, including coins, jewellery, and weapon parts.
Among the most significant discoveries are the remnants of a huge and opulent bath-house, measuring an impressive 60m by 40m.
Historians say it was a social hub for the elite Ala Petriana cavalry soldiers.
Based at the nearby Stanwix Fort, these professional soldiers were skilled and ruthless fighters, feared universally - part of a 1,000-strong military unit and the largest of its kind in Roman Britain.
Their job was to defend the empire’s northern frontier.
A new exhibition at Carlisle’s Tullie House Museum has brought together some of the fascinating finds from the Carlisle Cricket Club dig.
Nobody seeing this collection could doubt that Carlisle –Luguvallium in Roman times - was a place of significance in the empire. Indeed, some artefacts suggest the city had strong Imperial connections.
Of particular note are the almost 30 tiles - used in the bath house - which bear the imperial IMP stamp, signifying they were sanctioned by the Emperor himself. Veteran archaeologist Frank Giecco has been involved in the Carlisle dig from the start.
Working with Carlisle Cricket Club officials, Wardell Armstrong has been finding evidence of site's Roman archaeology since 2017.
Historians and archaeologists have been stunned by the finds, described as “Premier League” in their quality.
Among the exhibits at Tullie House - in the Uncovering Roman Carlisle exhibition - is one IMP tile that tells its own story.
Clearly visible across its face is a human footprint – possibly evidence of a slave’s quiet defiance before the clay hardened.
“It’s one of my favourite things from the dig," says Frank.
“It’s a Roman tile with the familiar imperial IMP stamp, but somebody has squashed their right foot into IMP symbol – possible as an act of defiance. When it had just been made and the was still soft, somebody just squished it with their foot.
“I think that’s amazing.”
Other tiles bear more accidental imperfections – including a cat’s paw-print.
Frank is particularly impressed by a perfectly preserved bone needle, while exhibited next to this is a tiny metal stamp, bearing the letters AEP, used on wax seals to verify the source as Ala Petriana.
The Carlisle site also produced finds that underlined how visitors to the bath house lived.
“There were a lot of cattle bones – spare-ribs, the Roman equivalent of fast food,” says Frank. “And next to the Roman road, we found flagons for drinking beer.
“There’s the glass from the bath house windows. Chemical analysis shows it was recycled glass. It was found in secure deposits. And we found ceramic vaulting tubes – a north African technique of building, giving us another imperial link.”
Like all Roman bath houses, the Carlisle one had the modern-day equivalent of central heating, called a hypocaust. Other finds of interest include part of a amphora wine jar. “In itself, it’s not a rare thing,” said Frank.
“But you can’t get any more Roman than drinking wine. That’s come from Spain and you can see that somebody has put their name on it and it has the wine maker’s stamp – the name of the shop that sold the wine.”
Kevin Mounsey is a fellow archaeologist at Wardell Armstrong.
With a long-standing fascinating for Roman history, he admits to having become a little obsessed with the site.
He says: “Being a resident of Carlisle, it’s been fascinating to work on this site, with such a spectacular building, the bathhouse.
"It’s a huge - and very opulent. We have found glass window panes, very fine floor surfaces, made up of very tiny stones and it’s clearly taken a lot of work. And there are the roof vaulting tubes. They’ve only been found at four other sites across Britain.”
Along with other observers of the dig, Kevin believes its finds are part of mounting evidence of an imperial connection to Carlisle. “Why was it such an opulent bathhouse?" he asks.
“Did an emperor visit it?”
An inscribed stone tablet found at the site bears an inscription, a fulsome tribute to either the Syrian Roman Empress Julia Domna, or possibly to later Syrian princess, Julia Mamaea, mother of the Roman Emperor Severus Alexander.
Kevin says: “It was the biggest bath house on Hadrian’s Wall, possibly a product of the size of the Stanwix Fort.
“There was a Roman Prefect at the Stanwix Fort, a high-ranking officer, potentially in charge of the whole of the frontier system.
“A prefect is usually an exceptionally capable soldier. So does this building reflect his status? Or does it reflect the fact that it was an elite unit? We don’t yet have answers to these questions.”
Commenting on the finds, Kevin adds: “They makes it all real. They’re fantastic finds. There’s stuff here you don’t often find on Roman sites.”
Wardell Armstrong’s finds and archives manager is Megan Stoakley has been an archaeologist for more than 16 years.
“There have been some absolute gems which came off that site, " she says.
“But for me what really stands out is the experience of meeting new people and seeing a community come together around this event. Over six weeks of the dig was quite something to witness. It's generated real excitement.
“We’ve had young children volunteering, school tours, and people involved right the way through to the elderly. There were people from all walks of life. Regardless of their background, people got stuck in, and became united over a single event.
“It’s something I’ll never forget.”
One good example of the passion seen during the dig was provided by Carlisle Mayor Pam Birks, who visited the dig herself.
She recalls her visit to the Cricket Club site – and how in a happy accident she discovered part of a Roman soldier’s sword scabbard. “I was holding a metal detector next to a spoil heap and about to leave - when I heard the detector bleep,” she says.
“That was when we found the metal part of the scabbard. I just thought: ‘Wow!’ I was absolutely blown away by it. I was thinking that it was probably 1,900 years since another person had seen it.”
The Uncovering Roman Carlisle exhibition is running alongside the Edges of Empire exhibition at Tullie House, part of the HW1900 festival, celebrating 1,900 years since the building of Hadrian's Wall.
The second exhibition includes the magnificent bronze parade mask, dating from the late first century AD.
“The Newstead mask is spell-binding to look at,” says Jill Goodfellow, Exhibitions Manager at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery.
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