Today, I’ll start with a story. A little under 2000 years ago, some citizens of the Roman town of Calleva had a house built, and decorated the interior. After some time, the house was demolished, and new buildings put on the rubble of the old. Eventually, the Roman Empire fell, and Calleva, its citizens and its buildings vanished and were almost forgotten.

Where is Calleva? On a map of modern day Hampshire, look in the north of the county near Basingstoke. You will find a small village called Silchester, which has a secret. Nearby this quintessentially English village is a vast wall surrounding a series of fields. The wall appears to be very old, and indeed, it is – it dates from the Roman period, and surrounds the remains of Calleva. There’s no town there now – unlike many Roman settlements such as Chester, and indeed London, but this is its great value. Without a history of development, the record of this Roman town is pristine and intact beneath the turf.

We now jump to the late 20^th Century, and to a team of archaeologists from the University of Reading excavating the Calleva site. Amongst their many discoveries, is a vast collection of plaster fragments which were once part of a wall in the Roman citizens’ house we met at the beginning. Interestingly, many of the fragments still have the paint attached and, although the damage is too much to allow any pictures to be reconstructed, the presence of the paint holds its own story. Of special interest, blue and green paints are present. Why are these special? Well, the Romans held these colours in high esteem. Some of the materials used to make these colours were rare or expensive (for example, Egyptian Blue was especially prized), and therefore reflected status – and the Romans loved status! The archaeologists now had a question. Were the citizens of Calleva using the best the Empire could provide, or were they using cheaper local products to “ape” the great imperial centre? Answers here would tell us a lot about the social, economic and political environment of this part of the Roman Empire.

A fragment of blue-painted wall plaster from Calleva, about 1 inch (2.5 cm) across – the real McCoy or something cheap? Or is the answer more complex?

But how to answer the archaeologists’ question? With my research interest in Heritage Science, it wasn’t long before I got wind of the problem, and started talking with the archaeologists. I quickly realised that I could use some methods in physical science, which had originally been developed for semiconductor and material science to resolve the issue, so I wrote a request to carry out a series of experiments on the paints. Who to? To the Synchrotron Radiation Source, one of the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) major research laboratories located at Daresbury near, wait for it, Warrington! This was about one year ago now, because my request to use this facility had to be reviewed scientifically and technically, and this takes time. So, on returning from our summer holiday, I found a letter on my desk informing me my request had been granted – but this is not the end of the story. Many other scientists, from physicists and biologists to geologists and materials scientists had also applied, and had their experiments approved, so I had to wait my turn, and my turn is next week!

We are now in the Final Countdown before our experiment, so the last week has been frantic – as team leader (yes, this will be a team effort), it is my job to make sure all paperwork (safety forms, team briefings, booking accommodation – we’re away from home for a week) gets done. Oh yes, and finalising a plan for the week so we make the best use of our time.

So, there’s a partial answer to the question in my first post – A research team from the Open University will be investigating Roman paints on wall plasters at a major UK research facility near Warrington.

I’m going to relax this weekend and charge my batteries. My next post will be from Daresbury early next week where I will tell you some more about this facility and introduce you to the team.

Cheers for now,

Paul.

About the author

In late 2007, Paul Hatherly joined Physics and Astronomy at the Open University as a key member of the HEFCE-funded Physics Innovations Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (PCETL).