Unearthing history

Chris Sinkinson  |  Features  |  defending our faith
Date posted:  1 Nov 2023
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Unearthing history

On 10 October it was revealed archaeologists had discovered an ‘exceptional’, previously unopened, 2,000-year-old Roman burial chamber near Naples.

As regular readers of this column will know, I have always had an interest in archaeology.

I don’t just mean watching YouTube videos or Indiana Jones, I mean getting wet and cold in muddy excavations in England. Or hot and sweaty in Israeli ones. Regardless of any connections to the Bible I love the thrill of excavating broken pots and corroded coins buried beneath the earth. I don’t know why anyone would not.

This summer I was involved in an excavation in the depths of the beautiful New Forest where we found a 2,000-year-old Celtic roundhouse and evidence of a Romano-British settlement. The most exciting find? Not coins, jewellery or weapons but a piece of broken pot. What made this shard spine-tingling is that it was inscribed with a name: Banvus of Lezoux. This c.120–200AD pot had made its way from the workshop of Banvus, in the Auvergne in France, to a little hamlet in Hampshire. Don’t you want to know, who was Banvus and how did his pot wind up here?

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