From the field

This is one of those objects that is both mundane and incredible at the same time. Let's face it, it's not shiny, decorative, or made to kill someone. It's a piece of mud... but it's a piece of mud that once formed part of the wall of a house here, giving valuable insights into how Iron Age people in Iberia built their homes. It displays direct evidence of the people who built at least one structure here. And, come on, how does a piece of mud survive like this, encased in different mud, for 2,000 years?!

Two more pieces of pot being uncovered and removed from the ground.

The sanctuary is understood to be the earliest part of the settlement at Mount Bernorio and the reason for its existence and growth as a city. This year the team found these offerings, a mini mill and a hand mill placed together. The hand mill as been ritually broken. Next to the mills are the remains of a small animal, likely a young sheep or goat.

This one looks very different to the arrowheads found so far at the La Loma site. I'm trying to find out a bit more information from Dr Torres-Martínez.

More fragments of ancient pottery to add to over a ton that has already been found here since excavations began. Mount Bernorio was a big city by Iron Age standards, a meeting place for many people who counted themselves amongst the Cantabrian tribe and, presumably, for travellers from further afield. Somewhere between a hill and a small mountain, it looms over the landscape and kept guard over many main routes through the mountain passes.

I got very excited when I saw these! It's the first time I have seen Roman arrows that are still attached to the remaining section of their shafts. This wood has survived for 2000 years!

The mountainous and rocky terrain is not easy to work in. Dr Torres-Martínez was born in the area and the mountains are part of his DNA, so that makes him the ideal archaeologist to tackle this particular kind of archaeology.

Three different arrowheads found this summer at La Loma. The first one is excellently camouflaged so you might have to look closely. Its point is in the middle of the frame and the whole thing is bent out of shape. The second is lodged in the soil and the third arrowhead is yet another fine and perfectly preserved example. One of the fascinating things I found out this year about the abundant arrowheads at La Loma is some of the models of arrowhead have been found in different gauges, so they're seeing a particular design repeated but in different sizes. I'm interested in exploring how these arrowheads were produced in large numbers for the Roman army and the different purposes of particular arrowheads, e.g. those made to pierce flesh and those made to penetrate armour.

Short video clips of two of the arrowheads, filmed on location by the archaeologists.

Dr Torres-Martinez tells me that this piece of metal was found in the destruction layer at La Loma but they don't know exactly what it is. Working theories are part of a shield, a Roman machine or part of a door. They may never know for sure, sometimes that's how it goes.

A single nail from a Roman soldier's boot. The detailing in the nail is so well preserved. Every time I see these I can't help thinking how painful these boots must have been to wear. Plus... how did they keep their feet warm marching through those mountains in sandals?!

A Roman coin from the middle to late Roman Empire. Quite a large number have been found here, depicting different emperors. I used to think coins were boring until history became such a big part of my life. These tiny items can tell us so much about society at the time they were minted and used... names of rulers, hairstyles, customs & sometimes spiritual beliefs. Importantly, they can also provide important dating information when found in context. I will update you once I've heard more about this particular example.

A hobnail from an unknown Roman soldier’s boot. Part of a sword. And, possibly, the handle of a pugio – a dagger, used as an auxiliary weapon and often decorated – as seems to be the case with this one. Interestingly for this story, the pugio seems to have developed from the daggers used by the Cantabrian people. The Romans seemed to have been impressed enough by the Cantabrians that they ‘borrowed’ quite a few objects and customs from them. You’ll find more about this throughout the telling of this story.

A few of the various items found at Huerta Varona Roman site. A pile of discarded oyster shells, a tile fragment and an incredibly delicate, decorated fragment of egg shell, possibly ostrich. It amazes me that fragile items like this can possibly survive in soil for thousands of years.

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Huerta Varona, in Palencia, Spain, is a Roman settlement founded in the wake of the destruction of the Cantabrian people. Dr Jesús Torres-Martínez and his team have made some incredible discoveries there, including a bath house with this simple but amazingly well preserved mosaic.

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During the lifetime of Augustus Caesar, glassware became affordable for normal Romans, thanks to the invention of glassblowing and its use on an industrial scale. Here we have an ingot of glass paste, easily transportable and used to produce small glass objects. The dark blue glass ingot is similar to examples found in England and possibly exported from there to Spain. There’s also a green glass bead and three fragments of glass, one that was clearly part of a jar for holding ointment or similar.

These pieces are very simple but I love the way that whoever made one of them used their fingers to imprint a pattern around the top edge.

These pieces are very simple but I love the way that whoever made one of them used their fingers to imprint a pattern around the top edge.

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These pieces look archetypally Roman to me. One clearly shows an eagle design. The other fragments are examples of Terra Sigillata, fine, bright red, polished Roman pottery, used throughout the Roman Empire from the 1^st to 3^rd centuries AD. The last example was part of a ceramic bowl for drinking wine and you can still see evidence of a hunting decoration on its surface with dogs running after a deer.

One of the structures that makes a site so recognisably Roman. Once the Romans had destroyed the local culture they didn’t waste time building a home-from-home, building structures to house their much prized luxuries and pastimes, in this case bathing (or socialising in the bath!) and underfloor heating.

Last summer, Dr Jesús Francisco Torres-Martínez & his team from IMBEAC explored the sanctuary of Mount Bernorio. They unearthed many examples of the Celtiberian turned pottery commonly found here, often with decoration still visible. An abundance of pottery has been found on Mount Bernorio, over a ton of material so far, perhaps not surprising as this was a large urban centre, occupied for over two thousand years. The pottery was likely produced on site as evidence of the kilns and raw materials have also been found.

A particularly eye-catching piece from last summer’s excavation. Once cleaned up, you can see that the pattern of concentric circles is still so vivid after all this time, even if the pot itself has been so badly damaged.

I love enigmatic pieces like these. It’s not treasure and, at first glance, these are just fragments of brick. But imprinted on their surface are the marks of clavi caligae – the iron hobnails from the soles of Roman military boots or caligae. Commonly issued to Roman legionary soldiers or auxiliaries. These shoes – that look like sandals but with thicker soles – for me, are absolutely synonymous with the marching foot soldiers of the Roman Empire.

Jesùs shared these clips from one day on site at La Loma. From one extreme to the other! There is a small window of opportunity each summer and the work must continue whatever the weather.

The IMBEAC team working at the incredible site of La Loma Iron Age fort. How often do you see stone walls like this on an Iron Age site?

The La Loma hillfort is an incredible site and I think you’ll understand why as you stick with me on this journey. Last summer, Dr Jesús Francisco Torres-Martínez and his team uncovered new structures of the fort’s stone walls.

This is the moment that a javelin and spear were discovered side-by-side, jammed into the rock. Listen to Dr Jesús Francisco Torres-Martínez give us an insight into what this discovery means.

These javelin and spear points were found together, at the bottom a wall. Dr Francisco-Torres  believes that these items were ritually placed here, as part of a founding ritual when this part of the wall was built.

Cantabrian Road at the entrance to the the hillfort of La Loma. This pavement was built at least two centuries before the arrival of the Romans. You might be able to see the bone fragment embedded in the surface of the road.

Mystery object emerges from the soil at La Loma. Once it's been completely removed from the ground. Dr Torres-Martínez, leading excavations here, believes it may be part of a door or window in the stone wall. Sometimes archaeology raises more questions than it can answer.

The team investigates the charcoal layer - clear evidence of a destructive fire.

This blackened area is evidence of the destruction caused by the Romans when they assaulted and then torched La Loma. The charred stone and charcoal here was part of a gate in the defensive wall.

Over 3000 Roman arrowheads have been found at La Loma. Their designs range for different uses and effects. The second video shows one made to penetrate flesh and do maximum damage. The purpose of the barbs is to make them difficult to remove.

The third video shows an arrow still lodged where it was shot, during the battle 2000 years ago. I find this incredible. It helps the archaeologists to work out how the fighting unfolded but also, it’s just amazing to think the last time this arrow was handled, it was by a Roman soldier.

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The amount of Roman military material found at La Loma so far is jawdropping. Last year alone over 150 arrowheads were found. You can see from the selection here that the Romans used different styles of arrows that would have caused different kinds of damage to their victims. Some have been blunted or bent at the tip by impact. You’ll find more arrowheads in the video section for La Loma.

Heading out to a new hill fort in Northern Spain at the start of the season. Not directly a part of my story right now but who knows what will be discovered? In the meantime, the people who lived here were, like the Cantabrians at Mount Bernorio, Celtiberian and the site should have much to reveal about their culture.

Baked clay and daub walls from the settlement on top of Mount Bernorio. Amazingly, a number of Iron Age houses have been identified and some of the painted decoration from individual house walls still survives.

A selection of finds demonstrating the crafts and manufacturing that took place in the Mount Bernorio oppidum. This includes burnt bone materials, a fragment from a ceramics kiln, a circular hand mill, spindle whorl and loom weights.

Just a fraction of the Roman projectiles found on site at Mount Bernorio. These are ballista shot used by the Roman army in their siege of the Iron Age fort.

Just a few of the Roman items found on site. Evidence of Augustus’ legionaries. In the first photo is a legionary ring and some caliga tacks – nails from military sandal-boots, which were standard issue for Roman foot-soldiers. The second image shows a Roman pilum (or javelin) point and the third is an Alesia type fibula, also used by the military in the time of Augustus.

These are some examples of wheel-made pottery.

These shards of pottery show some of the common decorations found on site.

What astounds me about these needles, apart from their fantastic condition, is that such tiny objects can still be found after 2000 years.

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The decorated fibula is known as an omega type. It is one half of the the object which, when whole, is shaped like the Greek letter Omega (Ω). These brooches were worn on the shoulder or chest to close a cloak and were in widespread use and popular with Celts, Ibrians, Romans, Vikings, Anglo Saxons. It looks so pristine!

2 bronze rings and a bracelet. The bronze colour of the spiral ring can still be seen and the shape of this simple ring looks like something that would still be worn today. Like so many other objects on this site, their condition is amazing.

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Bronze and glass decorative beads. The glass beads would have been imported, likely from Gaul or Bohemia.

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This is a Serpentine brooch, designed to be purely decorative. Unlike the fibula which was used to close a cloak.

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In these photos you’ll see a bronze thimble, a belt buckle, a razor blade made of iron with a deer antler handle and some small chain fragments of unknown origin. I particularly love the thimble because it is such a tangible link with the past, you can just imagine it placed on the end of someone’s finger, 2000 years ago. On the other hand, the chain fragments are a mystery. Like everything here they belonged to the Iron Age fort’s inhabitants, but archaeologists are unsure of what they are. Possibly part of a necklace or some other kind of adornment.

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The Tessera Hospitalis is an incredible find. A tiny object that reveals so much about Iron Age life for the Cantabrian people. In the shape of the rear end of a pig, this is a legal document that refers to the different treatment of ‘non-citizens’. This piece indicates both the sophisticated nature of the Cantabrians in the region of Mount Bernorio and their attitude towards ‘citizenship rights’. But it also confirms they spoke a Celtic language. These people were anything but the barbarians the Romans considered them to be. The fact that the object has been broken in half may indicate the ceremonial anulment of an alliance.

The only human bone remains found so far in the Oppidum at Mt Bernorio are those of newborn babies, found buried inside buildings. Burying babies below the floors and in the walls of houses is a type of practice that was common at many sites in the Cantabrian region (and in other parts of the Iberian Peninsula) during the Late Bronze and Iron Ages. It’s tempting, personally, to imagine that this was because parents wanted to keep their children close, even after death. But it’s impossible to really know the meaning of this custom.

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