Chester Amphitheatre

Part of my work at the moment is on the Roman Amphitheatre at Chester, or Deva as the settlement was known during the Romano British period. The amphitheatre was first excavated in the early 1900's and then again in the 1960's but recent work by English Heritage and Chester City Council has uncovered new information which will, in my opinion, change the way in which this amphitheatre and British amphitheatres in general are viewed. This work has been published as an interim report but is due to be fully published in 2011, which I personally am very much looking forward to reading.

I would have liked to have done my dissertation on the importance of these discoveries but I think the publication will come too late in the year. I may look closer to home and work on the amphitheatre at Caerleon. The Legionary fortress at Caerleon here in South Wales is a place I am very fond of and which I highly commend for it's accessibility, to not only the general public but to many school groups who visit throughout the year. I will be excavating here during August and cant wait to get my trowel dirty!!

Anyway, back to Chester! I will be visiting the Amphitheatre for the third time on Friday and am being shown around by Alison Heke an archaeologist with Chester City Council who has been most helpful. She really has gone beyond the call of duty. Hopefully I will have some interesting photos and insights from my visit to talk to you about after Friday. Until then its back to the rather out-dated books for more research! If anything interesting comes up I shall let you all know!

Until then,

Archaeology Bee is saying, "Good Night."