ALVERSTONE REVISITED

I'm just now in the middle of a series of Feb/Mar talks ( funded by the Heritage Lottery) on the extraordinary archaeological find we made down in Alverstone in summer 05 and which still rumbles on, as mysterious as ever. We just wanted a nice wildlife pond - and we've got one now; but on the way the seemingly otherwise uninteresting little field chosen as the site revealed an unbelievable find: a massive cobbled Roman road underlain by six interlinked prehistoric (maybe Iron Age) timber causeways and overlain by later ones (maybe Saxon )! So, Alverstone, sleepy, tranquil, sedate and serene village of today was for hundreds of years, two thousand years and more ago, a bustling commercial and community centre. But why? There are even Roman military finds - amongst the Island's first. What was going on? Amongst the fins (see below) was a particularly curious carved stick - perhaps a wand, perhaps evidence of a long-standing ceremonial function that this point on the Yar provided to the people of the Island? The road looks as if it crossed the river - maybe this was the main crossing of the Eastern Yar at a time when Alverstone was at the head of the estuary? Peat and mud cores from the site down to seven metres show saltmarsh flora and diatoms at the right layers for this. It'll take at least another two years to properly unravel all this - so watch this space! in the meantime here are some pics : (http://www.britarch.ac.uk/communityarchaeology/wikka.php?wakka=HomePage ,for more info and other nice things from the Council for British Archaeology)

is this a ceremonial wand? spear cap and ballista bolt


beautiful axe-head the amazing cobbled road