Piece of Wool Leads To Discovery

SCRAP OF WOOL UNRAVELS CHRISTIAN CHURCH FIND

Last updated at 12:47, Friday, 08 March 2013

A tiny scrap of wool found during an archaeological dig in

Maryport has unlocked a piece of history.

Archaeologists revealed this

week that the dig at Camp Farm

last summer has unearthed what

appears to be a Christian

church, dating back to the 5th

or 6th century.

Experts believe the possible

church, built in an east-west

direction, was positioned so it

could be seen at Whithorn, the

cradle of Christianity in Scotland,

on the other side of the Solway

Firth.

They revealed their findings

exclusively to a Maryport

audience crowded into the

town’s Senhouse museum on

Tuesday night.

Tony Wilmott, site director, said

that volunteers on the dig had discovered what appeared to be

Christian long cist graves. In one they found fragments of bone

and a tooth.

Forensic work has since discovered that the remains may be of an

individual, possibly a girl, aged about 14 but was unable to

carbon date the remains.

He added: “However, one of the graduate students, Lauren

Proctor, discovered a small fragment of textile while processing

soil samples from one of the graves.

“It was a tiny piece of wool no bigger than my fingernail. The

remarkable thing was that it has survived all these centuries.”

Radiocarbon dating indicated that the fleece was probably

sheared between AD 240 and AD 340, placing it in a late Roman

context.

Dig director Professor Ian Haynes, of Newcastle University, said:

“This is big news. Maryport was already an important site.

“The discovery of pits containing altars in 1870 led to a belief that

these stones were ritually buried by the Roman army. This is

something that became accepted.

“What we discovered was that the altars were actually buried as

ballast to support the large posts used for the church buildings.”

He added that activity at the church site may well have begun

before 410 AD and that a Latin-using Christian community

occupied the hill top for some decades afterwards.

Mr Wilmott said: “In the end, the least unlikely explanation is

that the structures include a Christian church.”

First published at 12:42, Friday, 08 March 2013

Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk