Archaeologists are gearing up for excavations in hopes of finding evidence of a  ‘Roman cemetery’ in Carlisle. 

The award-winning project, Uncovering Roman Carlisle, announced that its upcoming Autumn dig will take place from September 21 at Carlisle Cricket Club.

Since 2017, the team’s previous discoveries have revealed much of the city's rich historical past including two fantastically preserved two-foot-high effigies of heads.

The project emerged following the discovery of a Roman bathhouse by Wardell Armstrong LLP and operates in collaboration with Carlisle Cricket Club, Cumberland Council, Tullie House Museum, and Wardell Armstrong.

The upcoming dig will target the southern end of the site.

Frank Giecco, the technical director at Wardell Armstrong, said: “We’ll be opening up three areas and carrying on with the floors we exposed during the recent mini-dig.

“ We’ll be opening up a new area to see if we can find evidence of a Roman cemetery and ritual activity.

"On the last big phase, just on the very edge, we found a building foundation which might be a shrine or mausoleum and we had an in-situ Roman burial in a cremation urn. So this is a whole new area," he said. 

During the recent mini-dig, volunteers unearthed exciting artefacts from rare Tyrian purple dye, pottery, and animal bones, to a bronze hairpin, two complete cups, and a coin dating back to 80BC.

To prepare for the work ahead, there will be more training evenings for diggers to come and learn more about archaeology and the project. 

With hopes of having 25 volunteers on-site each day, booking spaces for the dig will open up at 6pm on August 24 with training event bookings following at 8 pm the same evening.

Over the duration of the excavation, the site will host guided tours every day and be open for school visits.

The Uncovering Roman Carlisle project has been recognized with four awards, including three from the Council for British Archaeology (CBA) and another from the Society for Museum Archaeology.

More information can be found via https://www.uncoveringromancarlisle.co.uk/