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Hundreds of litres of wine, dating from 500BC, have been discovered in a wreck at a
secret location off southern France. The Italian wine is contained in 800 terracotta
amphorae - vessels designed to hold the drink. Although it is still alcoholic, experts say
it is not drinkable. "It is a phenomenal amount of wine for a ship to be carrying at
that period," Luc Long, from France's Department of Underwater Archaeological
Research told the Daily Express. "The wine was usually reserved for the upper classes
and Celtic princes. It was also traded for metals. There was enough there to make a lot of
people very drunk. "Each amphora holds between 26 and 37 litres of wine. The amphorae
themselves are incredibly rare. "It is thought the 65ft wreck, found off the coast of
Marseille, was an Etruscan trading vessel that sank while heading from Tuscany to France's
Mediterranean coast. Mr Long added: "It is without doubt the best ancient ship ever
found and will enlighten us about building techniques of the day."
New Websites
‘Dig News’ - is a new site by Chester City Council, cataloguing the
archaeological activities in and around the City of Chester and published in a monthly
newsletter form. This month's issue features a major city centre excavation and recent
discoveries at both the Cathedral and Castle. The URL is: http://www.chestercc.gov.uk/heritage/archaeology/dig_news.html
http://www.LQQK.co.uk is a new site by Brian Elsey
specifically designed for Wiganers. It is a wonderful site, full of pictures (old and
new), local news, quizzes, history (timeline and documents) and much more. If you get a
chance, it’s well worth a visit.
Roman Road Prospects
If you are wondering what has happen to our new resistivity meter, don’t worry it
is on its way. I have spoken to Bob Randall of TR System Ltd who are building it. The
machine is ready but the hold up is on the frame, which is being made by a subsidiary
company. Ill health at this firm has cause the delay but Bob assures me that we should
have the machine within the next couple of weeks.
 Meanwhile we
have been building up a catalogue of potential sites for investigation with the meter.
These include the supposed Roman Road at Coppull (with the help of Chorley Arch. Soc.) and
sections of the route from Wigan to Manchester. Joe Russell has studied this road in
detail for some time and has identified sites at Tyldesley and Worsley. Last week Mark
Heywood told me about a possible site on the outskirts of Atherton, near where he lives.
He has been studying a recent aerial photo of the area around his house, (by the way,
www.multimap.com is another new site which is proving useful for prospecting, just by
typing in the post code the required photo comes up), when he thought he could see
something. After I sent him the relevant section from the First Edition OS map of 1849, he
was amazed to find the markings corresponded exactly. The route marked on this map was
established in the early 19th century by the Rev. Edmund Sibson, Minister of
Ashton-in-Makerfield, who traced it all the way from Wigan to Manchester, as well as the
routes running North and South of Wigan.
At the next meeting we will be able to discuss a date for a site visit. If you are
interested please let me know at he meeting.
Next Meeting
Wednesday 6th March at the BP Centre (Scout HQ) in Greenough Street, at 7.30 pm as
usual. This month’s speaker is Derek Pierce from the South Trafford Archaeological
Group, who will be talking about ancient pottery. Derek is presently running the Roman
excavations at High Legh near Knutsford (reported in Newsletter No. 48). He will be bring
along a selection of pottery from the various excavations he has been involved in over the
years.
Hope to see you there B.A.
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