Collection: Arbeia South Shields Roman Fort

Collection-level records:

• Collection overview (Cornucopia)

  Archaeology (prehistory)

  There is a small collection of prehistoric artefacts relating to excavation at the site of the Arbeia Roman fort, which are generally Mesolithic in date, as well as material from the Neolithic lake settlement of Robenhausen in Switzerland. There are also several unstudied collections of lithics excavated locally.

  Archaeology

  Finds from the South Tyneside area and archival material and ephemera relating to Hadrian’s Wall in general. An agreement with the Museum of Antiquities of the University of Newcastle means that any Hadrian’s Wall material goes there rather than Arbeia. The Roman excavations at Arbeia have their origins in the 1870s. The finds recovered by the Victorian excavators form the nucleus of the present collection which is one of the largest and most important site collections from Hadrian’s Wall. The collection includes coins, engraved gemstones, lead seals, one of the largest collections in the country: small collection of cremation and inhumation burials and a number of associated grave goods, including a rare jet distaff and spindlewhorl; Jet Objects, one of the finest collections of Roman jet in the country with finger rings, bracelet and beads, seal boxes, military equipment including a hoard of swords, brooches, pins and ear-rings. There is also a large collection of pottery ranging from cooking wares to highly decorated tablewares. A rich collection of inscribed stones, altars and graffiti refers to individual people and places as diverse as France, Spain, Iraq and Syria as well as Southern Britain. Modern excavations of the interior of the Fort have taken place but considerable research has also been undertaken in the civilian settlement (vicus).

  Ancient Egyptian Collection

  The museum holds 22 ancient Egyptian objects and 23 ancient Egyptian flints which are part of the Archaeology collection. Classes of objects represented in the collection include: flints; jewellery; pottery; scarab; shabtis; tomb model (boat fragment). One of the items is a hammerstone from South-East Libya, near the Egyptian/Sudanese border. Objects are known to have come from the following locations in Egypt (with the name of the excavator/sponsor and year of excavation given where possible): Alexandria; Beni Hasan (possibly Garstang – Liverpool University, 1902-1904); Harageh (Engelbach – British School of Archaeology in Egypt, 1914); Thebes.

  Subjects

  Antiquities; Ancient civilizations; Antiquity; Archaeological sites; Archaeological objects; Egyptology; Archaeological excavations

  Source: Cornucopia

  Date: Not known, but before 2015

  Licence: CC BY-NC