Archaeology student unearths Roman remains in a Yorkshire garden
London, Nov 19 : An archaeology student has found remains of a pot dating back to the Roman era, in the garden of his home in the Holme-on-Spalding Moor area of Yorkshire, England.
Apart from finding the ancient pot, Chris Bevan, the student, also found some medieval green glaze pottery in the garden.
"I bought the house in July and was just doing some gardening when I found a Roman pot and some medieval green glaze pottery," said Chris, who is a second year archaeology undergraduate.
"I immediately knew what it was and was obviously excited," he said. "There have been quite a few finds of this type in the Holme-on-Spalding Moor area, but I never expected to find something like this in my garden," Bevan added.
Holme-on-Spalding Moor has a history of historic discoveries, including an Iron Age boat excavated on the banks of the River Foulness at nearby Hasholme in the 1980s.
Now Chris and his fellow University of York students are using their spare time to carry out a survey of the garden in High Street and a neighbouring field where the ancient pottery was unearthed.
For this, they have invited a metal-detecting club to help them sweep the garden and field.
Because collaborations between archaeologists and metal-detecting communities have been unheard of earlier, this move by the group of students is being regarded as an innovative initiative.
"It's a way of doing things which is almost unheard of, because there has always been a level of mistrust between the archaeological and metal-detecting communities," said Bevan.
"We're hoping to break this down and show what can be achieved by a new generation of archaeologists taking opportunities such as using metal detectors rather than avoiding them," he said. "By doing this, we've already discovered fragments of Roman coins and other remains, and we hope there are even more still waiting to be found," Bevan added.
The archaeology group hopes to complete their survey this weekend, and it will be followed by several months of analysis of the find. (ANI)