Museum on Time Team this Sunday!
Thursday, 20 May, 2010

This Sundays’ Time Team features the Roman town of Cunetio – the important Roman town that lies close to Marlborough. Filming featured finds from excavations on display at Wiltshire Heritage Museum in Devizes.

Time Team excavated at the Roman settlement of Cunetio in the summer of 2009, and the programme is being broadcast on Channel 4 on Sunday 23 May. The programme features finds now on display at the Wiltshire Heritage Museum. The excavations were carried out almost 50 years ago by Ken Annable, the former Curator of the Museum, and Time Team researchers spent days at the museum finding out the story of the site. One of the most spectacular finds from his excavations was a hoard of Roman coins in about 360 AD, buried underneath a pavement just outside the town wall.

This is just one of the finds that have puzzled archaeologist Mark Corney for many years. But perhaps the most remarkable find at Cunetio is the largest-ever hoard of Roman coins found in Britain. The hoard of 55,000 Roman coins was found in 1978, and was buried in about 275 AD. The large pottery jar in which the coins were found is now on display in the museum. During research for the programme, we found that Phil Harding, who was based at the museum at the time, helped to excavated the 1978 hoard! We are seeking the help of museum visitors, local schools and businesses to create a modern-day coin hoard in the museum.

Museum Director, David Dawson, took part in the programme, and was filmed showing the Time Team researchers some of the important finds from the site. He said “Taking part in the Time Team excavation was great fun, and the found out a lot more about the Roman town of Cunetio. The best discovery, however, was finding a photo in our archives of Phil Harding taken in 1978 that will be featured in the programme!”