Born to be an archaeologist: she finds a medieval gold artifact on her first day
Yara Souza was supposed to participate in her first dig last summer but had to sit it out due to illness. This summer more than made up for that letdown.
Archaeologists have been interested in exploring an area close to what had been a major Roman road that passed through Redesdale, Northumberland since 2021. That year a metal detectorist, Alan Gray, discovered by chance an early medieval golden object.
This past July, a group of students from Newcastle University, participating in a Archaeology BA Honors degree course, along with professional archaeologists from North East Museums started an excavation there. One of the archaeology students, Yara Souza, was shortly into her first dig when she happened upon another similar object, more than making up for a disappointment she suffered the year before.
Striking gold on first archaeological dig: “I was really geeking out over it!”
Souza, who is from Orlando, Florida, was supposed to participate in another dig with Newcastle University last summer at a Roman military camp along Hadrian’s Wall, Birdsoswald Roman Fort. However, she fell ill prior to that excavation, forcing her pull out.
This year she made another go at taking part in the university’s officially accredited program that provides practical field skills, giving students hands-on training in the latest high-tech archaeological methods. Ninety minutes into the dig, Souza unearthed a roughly 1.5 inch-long gold object that has a decorative finial at one end.
“I couldn’t believe I’d found something so quickly into my first ever excavation. It was actually quite overwhelming,” she said in a statement from the school. “After I’d had to miss Birdoswald last year, it was amazing to discover something that hasn’t been seen for more than a thousand years.”
“I was really geeking out over it!” she added.
“This is an exciting find of exceptional quality and I’m delighted for Yara that she has made this discovery at the beginning of her career as an archaeologist,” said Souza’s tutor, James Gerrard, professor of Roman Archaeology at Newcastle University.
Believed to be for religious or ceremonial use
The two objects were found at a location near what was once the route of Dere Street, a major Roman road that connected York and Edinburgh. The road was used well after the Roman empire fell and runs along the modern-day A68 motorway.
Dere Street also connected two major religious centers at Jedburgh and Hexham. Since gold was high status and only used by the elite, experts reckon that the two objects found by Gray and Souza could have had a religious or ceremonial use.
“We know that Dere Street continued to be a major thoroughfare long after the Romans and it’s clear from this discovery that high status people were using it,” explained Gerrard. He added that “it is possible that this pair of objects may have been deliberately buried.”
It is hoped that after further research on the objects that they will eventually be displayed in the Great North Museum: Hancock.
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