Last updated at 12:26, Friday, 24 August 2012

An archaeological dig will continue for three years at Maryport after a series of “spectacular discoveries” this summer.

DIGGING A HOLE: Site director Tony Wilmott, left, and Professor Ian Hayes, who is leading the dig, on site for the second year of excavations at Camp Farm, Maryport

Experts and volunteers working at the Camp Farm site have discovered Christian graves and a Roman altar.

Senhouse Roman Museum Trust has committed to a £200,000 three-year programme to continue the dig.

Peter Greggains, trust chairman, said the trust would be looking for funding to assist in the dig over the next three years and was determined that it would continue.

He said: “This story is becoming of national and even international importance.”

A Roman altar was uncovered this month – the first found on the site since 1870.

The find confirmed that altars found there during the late 1800s, which make up the largest haul of altars on one site in Britain, were used as building materials and not as part of a religious ritual burial.

Professor Ian Haynes, project director, said world experts on Roman history have visited the site this summer or read about the finds and many are still reluctant to accept that previous findings were wrong.

Archeologists will return to the site if the necessary permission is received from Camp Farm landowners, Hadrian’s Wall Trust, and the Secretary of State.

Mr Greggains said the focus next year would be on artefacts unique to Maryport.

He added: “During the time of Hadrian’s successor Antonius Pius, a Maryport commander dedicated a building slab to Jupiter Capitolinus.

“This is a name not used on any other inscription in Britain and refers back to the most important temple in Rome on the Capitoline hill.

“We expect to unearth an area sacred to the Romans but, as we have already discovered, we need to be prepared to expect the unexpected.”

First published at 11:52, Friday, 24 August 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk