Roman Society Museum Internship Bursary 2015: Corbridge Roman Site
I would like to start by thanking the Roman Society, Frances McIntosh and Graeme Stobbs at
Corbridge along with all the other staff and volunteers at the site for providing me with the
opportunity to spend two weeks working at the site and for making those two weeks so
enlightening and enjoyable. I completed the placement between my first and second years
studying for a B.A. in Archaeology at Newcastle University and with my primary interest
being in the Roman period in Britain the opportunity to spend two weeks working at one of
the country’s premier sites for the period was a great privilege.
During my placement at Corbridge I worked on several different tasks, the aim being to give
me as complete as possible an overview of the work being done at Corbridge and along
Hadrian’s Wall.
I helped to organise the archive and material within it at all points in the process. I went
through this complete process with glass from the Housesteads excavations by cataloguing,
packing and storing it. Following this up by adding the records for this to the computer
database for Housesteads. I also worked with Graeme cataloguing material from the
Housesteads excavations that had been removed for further study and replacing the artefacts
back into storage. I was also tasked with sorting a large quantity of pottery according to type
and replacing it in the archive – which taught me much about several different types of
Roman pottery that I had not previously encountered. In addition to the pottery I helped
Frances to sort a large quantity of glass into appropriate categories to improve their storage in
the archive. I was also able to assist the conservator in repacking some of delicate metal
artefacts for storage and taking samples at Chesters from the museum display cabinets for
analysis.
One of the major tasks I completed during the placement was the digitisation of records from
the quernstone survey and of records of paintings from the Clayton collection. With the
quernstone records I transfered the written information from the paper records along with
scanning the drawings of the quernstones to the same database. I was also tasked with
reorganising a large quantity of stored material to enable easier access and better storage. I
also worked with Vicki (one of the sites excellent volunteers) in arranging the storage of a set
of books and pamphlets forming part of the Clayton collection.
In addition to the work I completed in the archive Frances showed me some of the important
tasks required to keep the artefacts on display to the general public. She explained to me how
the display cases are kept at the correct conditions to insure that the artefacts are not damaged
during display. While explaining these processes to me we changed the silica gel that helps
combat the humidity in the display cases and changed the batteries in the humidity alarms.
After which Frances showed me the system that monitors all these alarms and lets her know
if any of the cases need attention.
As part of my first week I was given a full site tour by Graeme, it was fascinating to be
shown around such an amazing site by someone who really knew every inch of it. With his
background in archaeology Graeme was also able to satisfy my curiosity as to not just the
result of the excavations but also the way the excavations were carried out. I was also able to
accompany Graeme on two excursions; one in which he was showing a property historian
around the Roman fort at Chesters as the first stage in redesigning the signage and
information to improve visitors understanding and experience of the site. The second
excursion was to view the remains of the original Roman bridge at Corbridge, unfortunately
due to the rivers condition we were unable to see the remains still in situ but we did view the
stones that had formed part of the ramp that led Dere Street onto the bridge.
To conclude my report I would again like to thank all the staff and volunteers at the
Corbridge Roman Site and the Roman Society for making this opportunity available to me
and giving me an amazing two weeks in which I learned so much and has shown me some of
the different career paths available when I finish my degree.