Farmer's field reveals most
exciting Roman finds yet!
by Gary Skentelbery
AN archaeologist who unearthed an ancient Roman settlement near Warrington with his metal detector has now made one of the "greatest and rarest" discoveries of his life.
James Balme says the importance of his latest finds at a farmer's field, will "once again" rewrite the history of Warburton near Lymm and add to the knowledge of the Roman history of the area.
Having already discovered a Bronze Age axe dating to 2000BC as well as a previously unknown Roman fortlet and numerous Roman artefacts, he has now made further exciting finds after the field was plouged.
  James, who has been investigating the ancient settlement since 1998, still believes that Warburton holds many secrets with his latest finds revealing the religious beliefs of the soldiers who once lived at the fortlet.
It was whilst James was searching a new area of land close to the village that he made his latest finds.
He said: "This may well prove to be the first Roman religious shrine to be recognised in the area and I am confident that the artefacts I have recovered will bear this out."
He has recovered the head of a statue of Minerva the Roman goddess of war, a large fragment of a shrine, highly decorated and most importantly what seems to be a model of a legionary soldier’s helmet.
James added: "These finds are extremely rare and exciting and indicate that this area of land was almost certainly the religious centre for the Roman soldiers at the fortlet.
"The fact that they worshipped Minerva the Roman goddess of war surely now proves that the Roman military were highly active in Warburton.
"I have no doubt that when the Roman fortlet existed the soldiers who were stationed there would come to the shrine to make votive offerings to the goddess of war before returning back to the fortlet.
"This really is a major new discovery for the area and I shall continue to investigate to see if I can recover more evidence of the use of the shrine."
James also runs Historic Media and carries out regular multi media presentations about his discoveries to schools and groups in the area.
Anyone interested in booking James for a presentation can contact him by e-mail at historicmedia@hotmail.com Pictures show James at the site and the head of Minerva (right) and the fragment of the shrine. | |