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Egypt on your doorstep

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Mar 1, 2011

Tagged in: world’s , World War II , Wiltshire Regiment , Wiltshire Heritage Museum , Wiltshire , Warminster Dewey Museum , War Office , Tim Burge – Museums Officer , The Battle of Egypt , Suez , Stourhead , St Boniface College , souvenirs , soul progress , Somerset , soldiers , Sir John Eldon Gorst , Sir Charles Nicholson , Sgt. A Holley , Romans , publication , postcards , Port Said , photograph , Pewsey Heritage Centre , people , papyrus scroll , Objects , national , museum , media , Medal – Chippenham Museum & Heritage Centre , Market Lavington Museum , manor , local , knife , jasper , Italy , international , India , images , HMS Superb , Gorst , Germany , fighting , February 2011 , famil , eyes , El Alamein , Egyptian Book of the Dead , Egypt , doorstep , documents , display , Devizes , country , collections.preserve , coins , Castle Combe , British protectorate , British consul general , attack , architect , Archaeological finds , Allied forces , Alexandria , album , afterlife , 2nd World War , 1st World War , 1943 , 1882

With the eyes of the world’s media currently focussed on the momentous events unfolding in Egypt I thought it would be interesting to see how this country is represented in Wiltshire’s museum collections.

 

Museums across the county exist to preserve and display the history of Wiltshire and its people as seen through objects, images and documents.

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Roman Bath House Reveals More Secrets

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Oct 6, 2009

The third season of excavation at the Roman bath house building at Truckle Hill has just been completed.  These past two weeks have revealed a lot of surprises about what we now know were a complex of buildings in this small valley bottom location close to Castle Combe.

 

Pieces of Painted Wall Plaster
Pieces of Painted Wall Plaster

The aim of this season was mainly to reveal more detail about the pre-bath house building which surprisingly came to light at the end of last season. This building had some intact painted wall plaster and a column base (see earlier blog from February 2009 for photo). More of this building was revealed this season, including part of a further  partial panel of intact painted wall plaster and what could be a monumental entrance feature leading into the building from the direction of the Roman Villa which is located 100m metres away. The jury is still out about the function of this earliest building as there is no evidence to suggest is was a bath house, but could possibly have been a building for feasting and dining. The biggest surprise this season was the discovery of yet another earlier building under the bath house, meaning there were at least three buildings constructed on site, one on top of the other. The second building was larger than the first. Structural evidence points to this being a bath house with a suite of rooms, some with painted wall plaster and tessellated pavements. A further discovery was a classic late Roman t-shaped corn dryer which had been inserted into the final bath house rooms after it went out of use. 'Read more' to find out about the dating of the buildings and the additional focus of the project….

Stone Roof Tiles from the Bath House
Stone Roof Tiles from the Bath House








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Truckle Hill Roman Building

Posted by: Blog Administrator on Feb 2, 2009

In the last two years the Archaeology Service staff have been involved in a really exciting project just outside Chippenham. About five years ago, the remains of a small Roman building came to light, located in a hidden valley near Castle Combe. 

Below  is the plan of Truckle Hill Roman bath house: the three phases of construction as discovered in 2007.

 

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