Earthwatch: England - Fort Arbeia and the Roman Empire in Britain

Help seasoned archaeologists excavate Arbeia, an old Roman Empire fort, to discover how ancient Romans & Europeans interacted with each other. Volunteer to dig up history and process your finds!

This extraordinary permanent large-scale excavation site is in a quiet residential area close to the River Tyne and the North Sea. South Shields Roman Fort is the site of a roman military and civilian settlement and lies within the UNESCO Hadrian’s Wall World Heritage Site. For more than a decade, Earthwatch teams have helped map more than 1,000 square meters of pre-Roman and Roman settlement here, excavating jewellery, armour, game pieces, and ceramics.

You’ll work in small groups, rotating among many tasks, including stratigraphic excavation using a trowel or possibly more robust digging equipment, recording site data, site surveying, and sampling, cleaning, and processing finds. When you're not digging into the social changes of the Roman era and other historical ages, your recreational time can be spent along the most impressive stretches of Hadrian's Wall, enjoying local Geordie culture in South Shields, or in the historic cities of Newcastle, York, Durham, and Edinburgh—all just a few hours travel from the field site.