Tag: Newcastle upon Tyne
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A Sunken Shield
The River Tyne was an important access point for Roman ships, bringing supplies and soldiers for the forts along Hadrian’s Wall. We’ve already seen some of the intriguing objects pulled from its watery depths, like the altars to Neptune and Oceanus. But what else has been discovered lurking beneath the surface? Our object today is…
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Ancient Stories: Aurelia Aureliana
It’s about time we met another woman from the furthest edges of the Roman Empire – and as we saw already with Regina, the key type of evidence we have for women in Roman Britain is their tombstones. Cheery! This time we’ve chosen one of our favourite tombstones on display at the Great North Museum…
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Ancient Stories: Regina
Did you discover any useful clues on the famous tombstone in our last post? Let’s take a closer look at Regina together, and see what we can find out. Let’s start with the inscription. Regina is particularly special as her tombstone is bilingual: this means it has a message written in two different languages: The…
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Fortune on the Frontier
It wasn’t just the Olympian gods who came along when the Romans arrived in Britannia! The Romans had lots of gods and goddesses – and they were each in charge of different things. We’ve met Oceanus and Neptune already, useful gods to have on your side as you make dangerous journeys by sea and build…
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Ancient Stories: Antenociticus
Let’s take a closer look at the first of two altars found dedicated to our special Tyneside Romano-British god: Antenociticus! You can see this inscription has lots more information than any of the altars we’ve looked at so far – so what does it tell us? This altar uses some new abbreviations we haven’t encountered…
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Ancient Stories: Antenociticus
Did you know there is a very special Roman god found only in Newcastle? Back in the 19th century, a small temple was discovered in Benwell, an area in the west of the city. Three stone altars were also excavated, along with the head and arm of a statue. The inscriptions on these altars tell…
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Ancient Stories: Neptune & Oceanus
For our first week celebrating the North East Festival of Languages, we are exploring the gods and goddesses brought to Britannia (Britain) by the Romans. Over 100 years ago when the Victorians were building a new bridge across the River Tyne, they found a very watery Roman surprise: two altars. An altar is a special…
Romans on the Tyne 